How To Make Oats Taste Good Without Sugar
What are the healthiest oats to eat: steel cut oats vs rolled oats vs instant oats?
On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, I’m sharing my best tasty secrets on how to make oats taste good without sugar.
Yes, it’s Food Wars time and we are talking about the big O today.
Oats.
What else did you think I was talking about?
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Oats, oatmeal, or whatever you want to call it, has been given a healthy label of approval from the media.
Although I don’t eat oats very often anymore, I do realize they are a better alternative to most boxed cereals.
Side note: if you’re looking to reduce grains in your diet, but love oatmeal, try this freakishly delicious cherry paleo noatmeal recipe.
Are all varieties of oats created the same?
If you watched any of my previous Food Wars episodes, you’d know the answer is a big fat no!
Here on Food Wars, we compare two foods, and I tell you which one should be in your cabinet, and which one should be in your garbage.
So lets find out if you are eating the wrong type of oats.
Are you eating the wrong type of oats?
Unfortunately, food manufacturers are adding artificial sweeteners and other unnatural ingredients to make their oats taste better.
I say screw that.
In this episode I’m going to tell you how to make oats taste good without sugar.
Yes, we’re going to add flavor, the natural way.
Trust me, your oats will taste better, and your body will thank you for it.
Steel Cut Oats vs Rolled Oats vs Instant Oats
When comparing steel cut oats vs rolled oats vs instant oats, they are very similar from a glycemic index rating, but steel cut oats seemed to bring blood sugar levels back to normal ranges quicker.
However, some people find rolled oats are more filling and they obviously take less time to prepare.
So based on all of this, if you’re going to eat oats, there’s not a huge difference between steel cut oats vs rolled oats.
But when it comes to instant oatmeal packages, that’s where I want you to be careful.
The most important thing I want you to look for in oats is the ingredients.
Rolled Oats – Gluten Free (serving size: 48g):
Rolled Oats – Gluten Free Nutrition Info:
- Calories: 190
- Protein: 6g
- Carbohydrates: 33g (5g fiber, 0g sugar)
- Fat: 4g
Rolled Oats – Gluten Free Ingredients:
- whole grain oats
When you look at the ingredients label on your oats, it should contain only one ingredient, whole grain oats.
As I showed you in the video, I didn’t have an alternative example of oats, with more than one ingredient, because to be honest, I didn’t want to buy unhealthy food.
After filming these Food Wars episodes, I never know what I should do with the unhealthy variation of the food, because I:
- Feel guilty about throwing it out.
- Don’t like supporting companies who make unhealthy food.
- Feel bad about donating it to the food banks, because I’m giving unhealthy food to people.
Based on this, as long as I can find another way to visually present the food to you, I’ve decided not to buy the unhealthy variation anymore.
To compare different versions of oats, I looked up the ingredients of an instant oatmeal package on the internet.
This is one of those instant oatmeals where the individual packets are sold in a cardboard box.
Here is an example, but not the exact one from the video.
Instant Oatmeal:
Instant Oatmeal Nutrition Info (serving size 43g):
- Calories: 157
- Protein: 4g
- Carbohydrates: 32g (3g Fiber, 13g of sugar)
- Fat: 2g
Instant Oatmeal Ingredients:
- whole grain rolled oats
- sugar
- natural and artificial flavors
- salt
- I can’t even pronounce most of the remaining ingredients
And the winner is…
Let’s make this easy on you.
The winner is obviously the rolled oats or steel cut oats.
Any type of oat containing one ingredient, whole grain oats.
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The instant oatmeal packet contains 13g of added sugar, compared to 0g of sugar in the rolled oats.
But that doesn’t mean you have to eat boring and bland oats.
I’m going to show you a simple way, on how to make oats taste good without sugar.
It’s a delicious way to make oatmeal, that’s filled with healthy flavor.
This way, you don’t need the food manufacturers adding sugar and other unhealthy ingredients to make it taste good.
When it comes to nutrition, everything that I talk about, revolves around taking one ingredient foods, from it’s natural state, then adding in flavors, healthy spices, and natural sweeteners, to make it taste delicious.
You’re going to get tremendous results by doing that, versus buying something that’s already pre
sweetened and flavored by food manufacturers.
Don’t let food manufacturers sweeten and flavor your food, do it yourself.
Here’s how to make oats taste good without sugar.
How to make oats taste good without sugar
#1. Add berries
If you’re going to eat oats, flavor it up by adding berries.
Berries are going to add a lot of flavor to your oats as they contain natural fructose and sugar.
#2. Add cinnamon
Another way to add natural flavor is by sprinkling your oats with cinnamon.
#3. Add protein powder
Add more flavor to your oats by adding protein powder.
Most protein powder contains added flavor, although sometimes it can get that flavor from unnatural, artificial sweeteners.
Always look at the ingredients label of your protein powder and look for brands sweetened naturally with the plant based sweetener, called stevia.
Use discount code: LiveLeanTV on my favorite healthy brand of protein powder.
#4. Add natural sweeteners
Speaking of stevia, you can also add it separately to your oats.
Or use a natural sweetener such as maple syrup or raw honey.
These are all natural sweeteners, that you can add to one ingredient foods, to make them taste delicious.
After you taste these oats, you’ll actually want to eat this rather than store bought cereal.
Detox your body of added sugar
Once you program and detox your body of artificial flavors, sugar, and unnatural chemicals, your body and taste buds will begin to enjoy the real, natural flavor of food.
But it’s not going to happen within a day.
You’re going to have to go through a process to get rid of those foods and get them out of your daily diet.
Once you’re consistently eating a clean diet, you’re going to start loving the taste of natural flavors.
Trust me.
Your next step
Go to your cabinet right now, and look at the ingredients list on your oats.
Is there one ingredient?
Or is it one of these flavored oat packets that contains sugar, artificial sweeteners, and other chemicals to give it flavor?
Or if you just have boxed cereal, get the cereal out of your cabinet, swap it with oats, and flavor it up with natural foods.
As I mentioned earlier, even though I don’t eat oats very much anymore, if you are going to add it to your diet, just make sure you’re eating the healthiest types of oats.
Or better yet, get rid of the oats, and eat my favorite breakfast.
Did you like my t-shirt from this episode?
If you didn’t notice in the video, I was wearing a new t-shirt that says, “Damn That Looks Good”.
We’re just in the beginning stages, but you can now get access to t-shirts like this from our Live Lean TV merchandise store.
You can buy men and women t-shirts and tank tops.
If there are any sayings that you want, or different styles and colors of clothing, comment below and I’ll work with my manufacturer to see if I can get that for you.
You can purchase our Live Lean TV merchandise directly through this store link.
I love you guys!
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If you’re looking for workouts that quickly burn fat, check out one of my 4 minute Tabata Workouts here.
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.
How about a shirt that says “Juicing for Jesus” or PRAISE JESUS, THAT’S GOOD !!!
Love that you said ‘garbage’, like a true Canadian (rather than ‘trash’!).
Great video again, Brad. I’ll be sharing!
It’s funny how I’m learning all these differences in sayings now. Same things as “supper” and “dinner”.