Healthy? Or am I deluding myself?

angeldelight

I really don't like porridge - the taste or the consistency of it. However I do recognise the nutritional benefit of eating it for breakfast so have tried various ways to make it more palatable. The best I've found is to make it just with water and add some golden syrup for flavour but I still found the consistency difficult to deal with and I'm tryin to lose weight so it's not ideal.

I bought Helen's Linseed Crunch with Cranberry & Almond in Aldi yesterday and tried it on my porridge this morning and I quite liked it!

The ingredients are linseed (45%), sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, honey (9%), dried cranberries (5%) [contain sugar, cranberries, veg oil], almonds (4%).

Nutritional values per 25g (I'd always weigh portions)
132kcal
5.7g protein
4.8g carbs (4.2g sugars)
9.3g fat (1.1 saturates, 2.7 mono, 5.1 poly of which 2.5g omega 3)
3.3g fibre
<0.01g salt equivalent
75mg magnesium

I liked the chewy crunchy texture of the seeds and the odd little sour cranberry but just wondering am I fooling myself by thinking this is good for me? I'm tracking the calories so that's not a worry its just the nutritional content I'm unsure about.
Thanks!

SunnyDub1

While I can't find anything MAJOR wrong with is, I would be cautious of the sugar in it. 4.2g is reasonable high for such a small portion, and that's without the extra sugar been added to it from milk.
To be fair you could eat be eating lot worse. If you like enjoy it, I can't see how having a small bowl each morning can cause any harm.

have you tried having eggs for breakfast?

angeldelight

SunnyDub1 wrote: »

While I can't find anything MAJOR wrong with is, I would be cautious of the sugar in it. 4.2g is reasonable high for such a small portion, and that's without the extra sugar been added to it from milk.
To be fair you could eat be eating lot worse. If you like enjoy it, I can't see how having a small bowl each morning can cause any harm.

have you tried having eggs for breakfast?

Thanks for the reply. I don't add milk at all so I suppose that's a help in terms of the sugar.

I love eggs and do have them for breakfast at least 2/3 days a week but wouldn't have them every day so trying to find an alternative

cosmic

angeldelight wrote: »

I really don't like porridge - the taste or the consistency of it. However I do recognise the nutritional benefit of eating it for breakfast so have tried various ways to make it more palatable.

Have you tried oatbran? I'm not a fan of porridge, for the same reasons you've said above, but I LOVE oatbran. I can't get enough of the stuff. The texture is much smoother and it has a lovely natural sweetness to it. There's not really a need to add anything to it. If you do want to, though, banana mashed up with cinnamon is lovely mixed through it. I've been adding some desiccated coconut to mine too lately (in addition to the banana and cinnamon) for some added calories/fats.

NoQuarter

cosmic wrote: »

Have you tried oatbran? I'm not a fan of porridge, for the same reasons you've said above, but I LOVE oatbran. I can't get enough of the stuff. The texture is much smoother and it has a lovely natural sweetness to it. There's not really a need to add anything to it. If you do want to, though, banana mashed up with cinnamon is lovely mixed through it. I've been adding some desiccated coconut to mine too lately (in addition to the banana and cinnamon) for some added calories/fats.

Where can you find oatbran? Anywhere? Is there a particular brand you get?

cosmic

NoQuarter wrote: »

Where can you find oatbran? Anywhere? Is there a particular brand you get?

Most supermarkets sell it. Odlums do one, as do Flahavans and Tesco do their own brand. I prefer the Odlums one and that's the one I always get. I had to get the Flahavans one a couple of weeks ago because the shop I was in had no Odlums and there's not a huge difference - I can still tell though

NoQuarter

Do you know if it has to be cooked? I'm not a fan of hot cereals for some strange reason!

I eat cold beans straight from the tin too

cosmic

NoQuarter wrote: »

Do you know if it has to be cooked? I'm not a fan of hot cereals for some strange reason!

It can be eaten raw but I can't see someone sitting down to a bowl of it with milk.
If I'm in a mad rush in the morning and have to have a bowl of the OHs Weetabix I add 15g of oatbran to it before mushing it all about.
It can be added to smoothies too. I'd use banana, fresh berries, oatbran, cinnamon and unsweetened soya milk in my smoothies.
I sometimes (at weekends - when I have time) make oatbran pancakes too.
I generally have it every morning in some form or another, basically!

metamorphosis

I let oat bran soak in coconut milk tonight ... The tinned stuff, for a few hours ... It soaked in and then I added chopped walnuts and banana ... Some flax and whey too ... Unreal combo!

doctorwhogirl

Oatbran is the shizz! I use mine to make pancakes!