I’m trying to lose a little weight and cut down on my sugar intake. I always eat breakfast and it’s almost always cereal on work days.
I typically have Honey Nut Cheerios or Frosted Mini Wheats for breakfast, but I know those are high in sugar, so I’m switching to something that seems a lot healthier and I’m looking for opinions.
I’ve started eating raw oats (rolled Quaker Oats) and wheat germ with a sprinkling of raisins and walnuts, with low fat milk. I used to have O&WG when I was a kid and liked it, so I figured I’d try it again.
How is that, nutritionally? Should be high in fiber, right? Seems filling, in that I’m not looking for any snacks before lunch. Am I getting sufficient protein and vitamins? Other than the raisins (and it’s really only 8-10), should be pretty low in sugar, right?
I nearly always buy lunch, and I’m thinking of making lunch my main meal and eating O&WG again at dinner some days. Anything wrong with this plan? Could it help me lose some weight?
I’ll be in and out today, so may not respond to questions and comments until tonight.
Are you eating the oats raw, or cooking them in some way? (This affects bioavailability of many nutrients.)
You could also consider regular Cheerios (in the yellow box, the old-school kind we all ate as toddlers) since it’s more like your original breakfast but without all the sugar.
RitterSport, there’s nothing wrong with you. No need to replace all that delicious chocolate with oats and wheat germ. Instead, try more hazelnuts and marzipan
I have that same breakfast pretty much every day and I think it’s great. It’s filling and I don’t feel hungry for a long time. My store sells oatmeal with wheat germ already in it. Is that what you have or do you add your own wheat germ? A pinch of salt does wonders for making it taste great.
Did you do a comparison using the nutritional data found on the packaging or online? It would be easier for you to do it than for us to guess what amounts, brands, etc.
Whole milk may be a better choice as it can keep you more satiated than low fat/skim, meaning less calories in the long rub.
Dunno about oats, though, especially as most options are heavily processed, including “old fashioned” rolled oats. More processed is like skim, in that it’s less satiating. Steel cut oats are too damn expensive in comparison though.
I like chopped walnuts in with my plain Cheerios. They add flavor, and they complement the oaty taste. They also add protein, fiber, healthy fat, Omega-3, and magnesium. Cheerios, like all ready-to-eat cereals, doesn’t fill me up or keep me satiated. The walnuts help.
I don’t measure it out anyway. About half a bowl of rolled oats, sprinkle on a fair amount of wheat germ, a few raisins, a small handful of chopped walnuts, and then enough milk.
Can you even eat steel cut raw? Anyway, I don’t like them because they taste like barley to me.
Yeah, definitely. I’ve been adding that to all my cereal for a while now. Supposedly promotes a healthy gut, as well (cite).
For the rolled oats you have, what is the suggested cooking time? I would think truly raw oats would be harder to digest and your body wouldn’t be able to process everything. But the 1-minute oats are pre-cooked and then dried out, so if you use those, you are eating cooked oats. I would assume your body could fully process them.
It’s not just the cooking time, it’s the time for it to cool down before I can wolf it down. I don’t have all that extra time in the AM. Plus, if I screw up my routine in any significant way, I’ll forget to take my wallet or brush my teeth or wear pants or something.
You’re not going to get all the nutrients you need from that breakfast. But then, you don’t need to. Breakfast is but one meal of three, and the nutrients you need can be spread out over a span of days or longer. To say how healthy your diet is, we’d have to know all of it, not just breakfast.
In any event, you are getting a fair amount of useful nutrients from your breakfast, and not much that you’d want to avoid. It’d certainly be easy to incorporate it into a healthy diet.
I still do. To the max! But I make 'em with a pressure cooker now; less supervision and stirring. Soak 'em the night before and then cook 'em for at least 20 minutes and they’re oaty, groaty, chewy, and flavorful. And rich with fiber. They fill you up.
Processed steamed, rolled oats cook up easy, but they’re lower in fiber and studies suggest they lack the possible cardio benefit of less process oats, like steel cut or my groats.
Thanks! This is really what I was looking for (and hoping to hear). I imagine it’s no worse than Honey Nut Cheerios in terms of nutrition I’m getting, and probably better in terms of fiber and sugar content.
Cheerios touts its oat fiber as being good for heart health and maintaining good cholesterol levels. Seeing as it’s processed even more than rolled oats, I wonder how much good it actually does.
After being low-carb and keto/ketoish for quite some time, I recently started eating oats mostly for the fiber and satiety compared to other carb sources.
I only eat one meal a day or one meal and a snack a few hours apart. This works best for my health and schedule. So I don’t do breakfast but I have it as part of my dinner or dessert. Sometimes I mix it with baking cocoa and peanut butter. Other times I have it with mixed berries. So, I think it’s “healthy” but it depends what else you are eating all day. For me I’m using it as a healthier option than pasta or potatoes. I’ve never been a fan of sugary breakfast cereals.
I don’t eat much during the day, but I have recently decided to have a small snack in the morning of cooked steel-cut oats with a sprinkling of nuts and dried fruit of some type, and a scoop of greek yogurt on top. Small portions. I cook the steel-cut oats and let cool in a small rectangular container, and refrigerate. When it’s time to use them, I cut a 1" wide piece as a base for my nutty yogurt sundae…I figure it’s better than my usual breakfast, which is either nothing, a bite of leftovers from whatever we had for supper last night, or a piece of the last of the Christmas candy or cookies.
Nothing saying you can’t make steel cut oats the night before and nuke it the next day. Add a handful of berries and a dash of buttermilk or whole milk and you have a reasonably healthy breakfast.
