What do you put on your porridge? I want to cut the sugar.

[WooMeOut]

Started eating porridge but with a sprinkle of sugar like when I was a kid.

Delicious but am trying to lose weight.

Any alternative suggestions to make it tasty but healthier?

Vanilla essence stirred in while cooking and then frozen blueberries or raspberries. Sliced banana if I feel hungry though that is high in sugar.

Handful of blueberries.

question about overnight oats: must they be done in the microwave, or can you cook them in a pan as usual?
(i got rid of mine as it was just taking up space on the counter)

Depends what you mean by healthy.

Fewer calories, then you're probably best off with a teaspoon of sugar.

The other suggestions (fruit, peanut butter, etc) will be more nutritious and help regulate your blood sugar better, but will be higher in calories.

you don't need to cook them at all.

@Brefugee overnight oats usually isn’t cooked at all, it is soaked in the fridge overnight to soften it and make it a quick alternative to the cooked version. It is meant to be ready to grab and run in the morning before you leave to start your day.

Also I use Date syrup on everything that requires sugar, I don’t add fruit or anything to my porridge but will sometimes add chia seeds and always add a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg.

I cook mine with cinnamon then stir through some sugarfree maple syrup.

thanks @Tropicaliyes the idea of cold porridge makes my stomach churn, so at least i don't need to faff with that :)

Half a teaspoon of sugar is probably less calories than banana, berries, raisins etc. Just saying

Made with milk (which is sweet) and then a portion of fruit. If you are used to sugar I’s start with banana and then go half banana half berries and then just vary it

Cinnamon and powdered ginger, made with water.
I add a heaped teaspoon of cocoa powder sometimes for chocolate porridge, or low calorie hot chocolate osder, but that has all kinds of sugary rubbish in it.

I do have sweet things on it or stir in some raisins sometimes, I'm not a total matyr!

This is true

But no fibre or vitamins and if you want to get your 5 a day in, if you don’t include something at breakfast time, you’ll be adding the calories somewhere else

Adding a bit of fat and protein (nuts) will keep the hunger pangs at bay for longer, so while breakfast may be more calories, it could reduce total calories for the day.

...but a teaspoon of sugar will be fewer calories than fruit, or other syrups or honey that are supposed to be 'healthier'.

I make it with a mashed banana so the banana is cooked in with the porridge oats and then add crushed pecans. Usually it’s sweet enough but sometimes I add a small spoonful of raspberry jam as well.

@Brefugee haha I feel the exact same way! That’s the exact reason I don’t bother with overnight oats and the times I did, I still irradiated it in the microwave so seemed pointless in the “overnight” part. It’s my understanding that leaving it raw and just soaked doesn’t add any benefits so we are not missing anything.

It’s another name for bircher muesli -yogurt and some oats and other things, so like a mushier muesli with yogurt rather than porridge

Candarell sugar substitute. Looks and tastes like the real thing.

Be careful of sugar substitutes like sweeteners and high fructose syrups like date or yacon - it's becoming clear that sweeteners do interfere with your metabolism post meal and, while high fructose sweeteners may not cause glucose spikes, fructose spikes are if anything worse for you.

Berries are a good way to add sweetness as while they have sugar they contain huge amounts of other good stuff including fibre. I also like adding almond butter which is tasty and filling. Sweet-tasting spices like cinnamon and nutmeg are good too.

Blueberries, plain yogurt and sometimes a dribble of maple syrup.

If you use frozen berries, do you add them before you cook the porridge or at the end?

I add frozen berries about a minute before the porridge is cooked - then they have time to defrost without going too mushy from stirring. You can add small berries to hot porridge but they take a little time to defrost and can cool down your porridge a bit too much.

This - 1 teaspoon of sugar is 20 calories - less than the calories in almost every other suggested topping (other than the sweetener).

When I am trying to lose weight, I do oats, plus skimmed milk plus one teaspoon of sugar.

When I’m not, I have it with maple or golden syrup

i think people need to realise that the issue with sugar in it’s many forms is not the ‘calories’ 👍🏿☘️