Ready Brek

[Sonnet]

I would love it if my DC would eat porridge but they just do not at all.

I have recently converted them to Ready Brek thinking it a halfway house with the view of maybe making porridge more palatable in the future.
Anyway a friend of mine has told me that "Ready Brek is full of added sugar and in fact you can see the sugar crystals in it"

I have checked the ingredients and there is no sugar, glucose, fuctrose syrups added at all. In fact when I do a nutrition comparison with the porridge oats box it is almost the same and there is definatly no more sugar than in porridge.

So should I carry on and ignore her comments. Is she correct and am I way off the mark with my beleif that ready brek is ok?
We are due to go away on holiday soon and she dosn't want her dc touching ready brek and would prefer them to eat rice krispies and wheatabix instead

ready brek has no added salt or sugar so your friend is talking rubbish. Weetabix and rice crispies both have more salt/sugar than ready brek. Why not cut out the nutritional info panel on the box and get her to compare the details with the other cereals.

Oh some people know everything without actually knowing anything at all. Ignore her.

Is she getting confused with baby porridge? That is pretty sugary.

Just take seperate cereal when you go away-I know I'd rather mine ate ready brek than rice crispies

I think ordinary plain Ready Brek is fine - I agree no mention of added sugar etc on the pack. I think you can get other instant porridge type breakfasts which often have other added flavours - I think I've seen things like apple and cinamon, and caramel. I'm sure that these would probably contain more sugar. Maybe she's thinking of these.

Think Seeline is right. I love the Golden Syrup flavoured Oats So Simple and you can see the sugar in that. Tis lovely!

ready brek has 1g of sugar and less than 0.1g of salt per 100g

rice krispies have 10g of sugar and 1.625g of salt per 100g

weetabix has 4.4g of sugar and 0.65g of salt per 100g

Ready brek has the lowest salt sugar out of the 3 cereals.

Wow thanks for all your replies - I feel better now. I am that weetabix has more!

Because she sets herself as being the authority on food I often feel uncomfortable and unsure of whct I do know.
I will def tell her that ready brek has less sugar if she comments sniffliy whilst her children are tucking into bowels of weetabix and rice Krispies....

You could always take some oats with you and give them to the children raw - my boys love them with milk for beakfast (and chopopef ruit maybe) but they don't like porridge, so we eat loads of plain oats - and there's no sugar in those (nor is there in Ready Brek., of course)but they're a bit quicker to prepare thatn ready brek.

sounds like your 'friend' doesn't actually bother reading the ingreidnets list or nutritional informaiton on packets

For what it's worth, have you tried making porridge with ground up oats (oatmeal) instead of whole oats? I just bung them in the blender dry and whizz is to a powder. Gives a smoother texture, like ready brek. Not that there's anything wrong with ready brek, but incase you run out!

Thanks Frankmustard - what a great idea, I never thought of that, will try that ASAP. Similarly overmydeadbody, that is a great idea.....
spinspinsugar - I do mean bowels (plural) each child will eat weetabix x2 topped with rice krispies and cornflakes and often have a second bowel(minus the weetabix)!!
Hmm whilst my DC are not very good at breakfast!!!

A question overmydeadbody please:

If I ground up porridge oats do I need to cook it for less time?

Annabel Karmel gives Ready Brek the thumbs-up - nuff said!

Lol Sazzerbear!

I don't think Ready Brek is all that bad when you see all the other brands advertised - most containing chocolate!

Sonnet I think you may mean bowls as bowels has a whole other meaining

meaning, even!!

I am as always thought ready brek was worse out of them all!

Ready Brek is one of the best cereals you can give them - it's just refined oats.

I do put sugar or maple syrup on it though to make it more palatable

I think that with all the sugary cereals marketed at children, people would be surprised when they realise that children actually don't always want the sugary ones and as adults we're almost conditioning them to expect the sweetness by offering them! I'm not against the odd bowl of coco pops for a treaty breakfast, don't get me wrong, BUT I can honestly say that when I ask my boys what they want for breakfast (and we have a cereal cupboard to rival Seinfeld's!), the usual answer is oats! They don't have sugar on it, or honey, but sometimes they have a sprinkling of another cereal on the top, like cornflakes or rice krispies(I know, strange blokes!).

oh ready brek is brilliant stuff.. .. dc's still like me to add some dried fruit to it and a little honey..

it's is now there poorly food

I love to eat it cold, I told the makers I did this they were shocked (I used to clean the offices), but then a while later it was on the packageing!

We are going to have some for breakfast, I may even have a bowl now

BUT why do HV say give them weetabix? I thought I was doing the right thing, giving them fibre!

Isn't Ready Brek just ground up oats? So porridge in other words?

I love the stuff and I eat it cold too.

The chocolate variety is so chocolatey though and I have to mix it with the plain for the DCs. They wolf down a big bowl of it every morning. They like it hot though.

sonnet sorry for late reply, yes if you grind it up it needs much much less time to cook.

And great for dealing with my morning sickness too.

The only reason I use ready brek not porridge whizzed up for dd is because ready brek is fortified with extra vitamins...

I had no idea they did chocolate version too.

I think ready brek is gross though- I would never eat it... love porridge though