Are You Making the Right Nutritional Choice?
Standing in my “between homes” kitchen, I contemplated having a bowl of oatmeal. I was pondering what to do because we were out of my favorite oatmeal fresh fruit topper: bananas. Not having any bananas and not having that many alternatives, for a brief moment I considered going to Dunkin' Donuts, but I wanted a better and healthier choice.
Somewhere in one of our many boxes I believed we may have had a box of instant oatmeal from Quaker Oats, but I did not want that. A packet of Quaker Instant Apple and Cinnamon Oatmeal was a far healthier option than anything I could get from Dunkin', but I knew my original thought was an even better nutritional choice. No sooner than that thought hit me another thought hit me. We had apples. I was set. I was getting to have the oatmeal I wanted, albeit without bananas, and I was making the right nutritional choice.
In this blog post I will use this battle of the oatmeals to teach you how to make the right nutritional choice by focusing on the oatmeal choice I did not make.
How to Make the Right Nutritional Choice?
Let me start by saying that Quaker Instant Oatmeal brand is not an awful choice. In fact, the key ingredient, whole grain rolled oats makes that so. I get to that below. It is the other items in the product that make it not the best in terms of the right nutritional choice.
In helping you to make the right nutritional choice I share with you what to consider to help you make such a choice. It all begins by you first turning to the nutritional information and ingredients. After finding the nutritional information and ingredients, pay attention to the following four areas:
1. Know the key ingredients
Ingredients are list in the order of there prevalence. The first two items in the Quaker Instant Apple and Cinnamon Oatmeal are whole grain rolled oats and sugar. In the image above I put a green line under this ingredient to indicate it as a beneficial ingredient and as one that you should select. Studies have shown that whole grain products may be helpful with preventative diseases such as your risk for obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and certain types of cancers. Whole grains are also a good source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Sugar being the second most used ingredient is more alarming. I touch on that in my fourth point.
2. Read all the ingredients
I have read that you should avoid products that contain more than five ingredients. I have also read where someone mentioned that they hate the five ingredients rule. She states, “Do you ever use more than five ingredients in preparing foods you make at home? Sure.” That makes sense to me. I made up my own rule: if the ingredients sound more like a science experiment than like food, I probably should not eat it. Take a look at the ingredients for the Quaker Instant Oatmeal after sugar. That is what I mean when I say the ingredients are more like a science experiment and less about food. That is why I would not eat the Quaker Instant Oatmeal. It has a health benefits due to the whole grain roll oats, but too much about it is not real.
3. Be particular about flavor
What do you use for flavor when you cook for yourself? I am guessing you use things such as salt, pepper, herbs, or zest. None of those are artificial. My take is if I am not adding artificial flavors to my cooking I want to try not let someone else add it to my food. I did look into natural vs. artificial flavoring. I found something here. I think the aim of the article was to ease confusion, but in terms of thinking healthy, I feel it missed the mark. I concluded that it is best to make your own food. That takes out all the guess work.
4. Look at the final results of the ingredients
In addition to the ingredients, always make it a habit to look at the nutritional information. You want to do this because labels lie. For example, the front of a package can entice you with the words “Low fat,” but not be a healthy food source. The only way you will know is by the ingredients and the nutritional information. In the first tip I mentioned that sugar was the second most prevalent ingredient in the Quaker Instant Oatmeal shown here. Sugar being listed as the second ingredient is a sign that there is a lot of sugar in the product. The nutritional information confirms that fact by showing that the oatmeal has 12 grams of sugar. That is three tablespoons of sugar. I do not think that is sugar from the apples. That is added sugar. When you consume too much sugar that leads to fat.
Your Best Choice is the Right Nutritional Choice
In my quest to losing 75 pounds weeding through information about healthy eating at times was overwhelming confusing. When it came to making healthy choices I learned from that information that your best choice is to make the right nutritional choice. You do that by focusing on ingredients and nutritional information. Prescribe what I share above and you will be well on your way to making the right nutritional choices too.
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