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

Interesting thread about healthy cereals

Shreddies afaik have about 17g sugar per 100g
Shredded Wheat has 0g of sugar - slight difference in the name huge difference in the actual product!

I am wondering about the differences between ready brek and ordinary porridge oats - is it just that ready brek is refined oats?

Normally when products are refined it means the good bits have been removed - hence why I buy unrefined sugar (for baking) and wholemeal bread and wholemeal flour.

So if ready brek is refined oats does that mean the good bits have been removed.............

So therefore in principle sonnet your friend could be right - although I agree re weetabix containing sugar etc

Ready Brek (like lots fo cereals) have added vitamins and minerals, hence it is fortified. Yurt I think you're getting confused with refined and fortified. White sugar and white flour are refined (lots of stuff taken out). Ready brek is fortified. They do something to the oats to make them into ready brek, but I have no idea what. Shredded wheat is similarly refined, in that something has been done to the wheat to make it into shreds

ready brek is great! both my dds (3.5 years and 9 mo) love it. no added sugar or salt. best of all the breakfast cereals.

Over - Im not confused about the diffs between refined and foritfied at all! Annaje said at 16:25 that readybrek is refined..........

I knew it was fortified, is it also ground down to make it finer

Ill stick to my unrefined unfortified oats I think - cheaper too

And who thought breakfast cereal was boring!

I have strangly learnt something for this thread!

your friend would have been right a few years ago. Ready break used to be ladened with sugar and salt, back in the years that time forgot, when i was a kid, i used to love it as it was so sweet and you could see the sugar crystals in it! However, iirc they changed it and took all the sugar and salt out after a baby died from a salt overdose from being fed a diet of ready break by his unsuspecting mum. It is now just finely milled oats, as is own branded instant hot oat cereal.

also i believe that if you just put oats in a blender you will end up with oatmeal, which is line of lumpy, not smooth. The milling process is like a flaking as opposed to a chopping that you would get from your blender. Hth

I am also from the Dark Ages and I don't remember there being sugar crystals in Ready Brek. That may be because you couldn't see them past all the golden syrup we'd spooned into it though... [drool]

I used to add loads of sugar as well, got a good hard smack for it once as well. It was the only time I got caught doing it!

Have just read this thread and am at ready brek being the lowest of all, I always assumed that it was sugary and salty basically because it was made for kids!

I buy normal porridge oats because of that but I have to say I love a bowl of ready brek hot or cold so may go back to that.

Could any of you tell me though because ready brek has the added nutrients is it actually better for you than normal porridge oats?

Sorry if that did'nt make sense.

I try to give DS a different cereal everyday normally weetabix, cornflakes, shreddies and maybe a bowl of coco pops every 2nd week, not a control freak honest , his dad had nothing but chocolate cereal when he was a child and now can't eat any other cereal without tons of sugar .

Are you sure you want to go on holiday with somebody who forces you to read the nutritional panels on cereal boxes......

Be sure to take ample supplies of Dairy Lea with you!

oh, don't be tempted to make your ready break outside when you in camping. One breath of wind as you soup it out of the box and you'll look like you have really bad dandruff

Gosh - never thought a thread about ready Brek would get to 40 posts!

NorthernLurker - would prefer it if she did read the nutrition panels and not just "KNOW" these things.....

LOL at Bowels Seona1973 even!

After reading all this thread with interest i am now convinced that I am correct [grin}
That Ready brek does not contain any added sugar in any form.

I have also learnt that Weetabix has more sugar and have enough informed opinion to put right any misconceptions on her part should she attempt to tell me off

Oh gosh I put toffee syrup in mine instead of sugar...Im guessing your friend would have something to say about that [grin}

In the scheme of things...compared to all the chocolate cookie type breakfasts I think ready brek is fairly inoffensive!

I actually prefer the Tesco own brand one though as its slightly oatier!

My HV recommends Ready Brek because it is low salt, no sugar. DS loves it, especially mushed up with banana or other pureed fruit. Have found that Asda Ready Oats is the same, but half the price.

Phew, my 19 month old has Ready Brek pretty much every day! He loves it and I refuse to give him the other sugary cereals (which I am sure he will start asking for in time!).