For breakfast this morning, we had oatmeal. Because it was a work day, it was "fast oatmeal"; it took about 10 minutes from the time that the girl asked for it to the time the bowls plunked down on the table. Sometimes on the weekend, we do "slow oatmeal", the steel cut kind that takes a half an hour to cook. "Slow oatmeal" is more delicious, but "fast oatmeal" is better suited to getting out of the house on time.
Besides the fact that oatmeal is tasty and filling, it’s also good for you – low in sugar, high in fiber. A serving of “fast oatmeal”, made from a ½ cup of dry oatmeal, and with a teaspoon of brown sugar and a ¼ cup of 2% milk, has about 200 calories in it – and it’s a good filling breakfast, it'll keep you 'til lunch. As a bonus, the oatmeal provides 4 grams of dietary fiber, you know, to keep your insides nicely scruffed.
Later in the day, I had an oat-based drink. A what? A PR agency asked if I wanted to try it, so I said sure, because I do try to keep an open mind, well, within reason anyway. I'm pretty sure I'd turn down a case of Dinty Moore beef stew, and you will never talk me into frozen TV dinners or fat-free ice cream, ever.
So this oat stuff. It's called Sneaky Pete's, because they are sneaking oat fiber into a poor unsuspecting beverage. I tried the "Mango Mystique" flavor, and I had to look at the label several times, because it did not taste like mango, no way. It tasted like really really sweet peach jellybeans with a long chemical aftertaste. Now, if I'm going to drink something that is ostensibly healthy and tastes like peach, I'm going to want it to have peaches in it. (Or mangoes, as the case may be.)
Here are the ingredients:
Filtered water, Erythritol (natural sweetener), Evaporated Cane Juice [also known as sugar], Oat Bran Concentrate (avena sativa), Citric Acid, Natural Mango Flavor with other Natural Flavors, Stevia Extract (natural sweetener).
Ah. Three different sweeteners (two of which aren't sugar) and no fruit. Also, some of those "natural flavors", which may well have been made in one of those factories along the New Jersey Turnpike. And fiber, in the form of oat bran concentrate - providing 3 grams of dietary fiber. So what we have, folks, is fiber-enriched mostly-artifically-sweetened flavored water.
I'm all for fiber, no question. But "sneaking" it into things like drinks? How about eating real food, people, like a bowl of oatmeal washed down with a cup of coffee?
While I did receive four bottles of Sneaky Pete's for free, nobody paid me to write about it, and my opinions are very much my own.
8 comments:
Funny, my kids are hungry again an hour after eating oatmeal. Go figure. But I do grind it up (uncooked!) and toss it in muffins and smoothies and such.
I had my oatmeal this morning with walnuts, honey and a pitch of salt. No dairy.
And yes, nothing can replace real food.
I make my steel cut oats in my rice steamer. Look, Ma, no hands! It takes about 75 minutes for two servings (I'm the only breakfast eater in the house), so I save the second serving for the next day.
I agree with you on real food. Just give me water, but only after I've had my two cups of coffee in the morning. Keep your weird flavorings and added fiber drinks. Those are just strange.
I had oatmeal for breakfast this morning, too. 1/3 cup dry oatmeal, blueberries, 1-2 tsp brown sugar and a half cup plain, non-fat yogurt. Yum. Easily keeps me til noon. Yes, to real food!
Its the cup of coffee that does it, if you ask me.
Hey hey hey. Jersey girl here (ex-Jersey girl, I should say).
Had no idea a drink could harbor 3g of fiber. Doesn't sound appetizing.
Definitely sounds like the bowl of oatmeal would be the better deal.
Mmmm... oatmeal. We've been enjoying some baked pumpkin oatmeal the last few days. Except now it's all gone. Must make more!
Post a Comment