Fat content in oats

With lipid profile of approximately 20 percent saturated fat and 80 percent polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats oats have a slightly higher fat content than other grains and can go rancid more quickly.

The high fat contents of oats provide soft, chewy, creamy, warming nourishment. To protect the fat from becoming rancid, oats contain a natural antioxidant.

Oats have a fat content in the kernel 2 to 5 times as high as wheat and pericarp contains an active lipase which, unless inactivated, hydrolyses the fat to glycerol and free catty acids primarily, oleic, linolenic and palmitic which produce a bitter flavor.

Lipase activity in the grain is destroyed by a few minutes of steam treatment.  Heat activation is commonly applied to oats for porridge, the process also appearing to stabilize the fat with respect to oxidative rancidity.

In regular oats, fat provides approximately 14% of digestible energy content, a value which will further increased up to approximately 18% in de-hulled and high fat oats.
Fat content in oats