As a child I remember mornings of waking up to the sweet smell of oatmeal that had been cooked on the stove by my grandmother just to get me out of bed. Looking at the ingredients now I find a claim on the cylindrical containment unit to read “Ingredients 100% NATURAL WHOLE GRAIN QUAKER QUALITY ROLLED OATS.” As a health concerned consumer now I appreciate this information and value my grandmother’s attempt to bring me up with healthy foods. Upon realizing that it has been years since I have eaten the original Quaker® product I decided to look up the nutritional facts for the much more popular “Instant” version of the oatmeal that I have loved since my childhood.
I, being a college student, hardly have time for regular oatmeal or the necessary heating elements to cook it especially if they taste the same. Expecting to see the same ingredients and likely the same nutrition facts I was wholly disheartened at seeing a list of almost twenty ingredients. In researching the topic to find more information on how one of my favorite breakfast foods stacked up against the newer, quicker version. In original observance, the new product seemed promising seeing it has a significant amount of essential vitamins and minerals. Upon further research the great sources of vitamins were added to the mixture in a spray-on form and were the amounts for the dry food. The actual prepared product has less than half the nutritional fact values because the cooking of the oatmeal evaporated the vitamins with excess water. This seemed almost deceitful as far as nutritional facts go but it does state that all facts are for the dry weight of the product.
I believe that as long as I am in college dorms with no time and no stove it may be necessary to bite the bullet on this one and eat the instant version over the natural, spectacular product.
More opinions on the issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment