Oatmeal toppings?

ingeborgv

Cinnamon and diced rhubarb. Yum!

Oh, and blueberries and cinnamon is nice, too.

MsLilly200

I use applesauce.

gp79

Jeninbelgium,

By no means am I an expert but lets take a quick look at oatmeal in it's many forms, simply from a calorie standpoint.

Quaker, Old Fashioned Dry: 150 calories per 1/2 cup serving.
Quaker Instant Oatmeal: 160 calories per packet
Quaker Instant Oatmeal, Lower sugar: 110 calories per packet.
Generic or Organic Steel Cut Oats: 150 Calories for 1/4 cup serving.

Not bad at first glance. In my opinion Oatmeal is a decent way to start the day, because there are alot of worse things available to us.

How many packets of this stuff makes up your breakfast? Thinking back to my past, 4 was my magic number, because it filled the bowl. 160x4=640 calories

One cup of dry oats = 300 calories. So about a half a bowl depending on the bowl size. My bowls at home hold 2 cups worth. Now who in their right mind is going to eat plain, unflavored oatmeal? So you've got to put some toppings on it and what people usually go for is some form of sugar (brown sugar, maple syrup full of corn syrup).

The same sized serving of the steel cut oats, where each serving is only 1/4 cup, now we're looking at = 600 calories for one cup. Again, adding toppings is going to make that 600 calorie bowl, easily reach upwards to 800-1000 calories.

Oatmeal is a calorie dense food, so if your not careful to make sure you stay within your calorie goals, you can easily over eat without paying much attention especially when you start adding the sugar and other calorie dense toppings such as nuts and dried fruit.