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What is the best fruit to put in oatmeal?

Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, mangoes, melons, apples, peaches and pears are all tasty and healthy fruits you can mix with oatmeal for added sweetness. Most fruit is rich in vitamin C, fiber and other essential nutrients. If you don't have fresh fruit on hand, substitute frozen.

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Oatmeal is a healthy food that can always use a boost of flavor from add-ins such as fruit, nuts and yogurt. When you add tasty and healthy ingredients to oatmeal, you don’t have to mix in unhealthy ingredients like table sugar to make it taste better. Many of the toppings you can add to oatmeal are the same as those you might add to cold cereals. Healthy additions help turn a bowl of oatmeal into a nutritionally balanced meal.

Yogurt

The tangy flavor of lowfat or fat-free plain or fruit-flavored yogurt helps cut the blandness of oatmeal. Yogurt adds protein and calcium to the mix of nutrients supplied by oatmeal. Start with just a spoonful of yogurt, then mix in more to suit your own taste.

Milk or Milk Substitutes

Lowfat milk is a healthy addition to oatmeal that, like yogurt, adds protein and calcium. If you don’t use dairy products or you just want to try a nondairy addition to oatmeal, try fortified soy mik, rice milk or almond milk, which all supply the same and sometimes more nutrients than dairy milk.

Fresh Fruit

Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, mangoes, melons, apples, peaches and pears are all tasty and healthy fruits you can mix with oatmeal for added sweetness. Most fruit is rich in vitamin C, fiber and other essential nutrients. If you don’t have fresh fruit on hand, substitute frozen.

Dried Fruit

Try adding raisins, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, diced dried apricots and prunes. For more sweetness, add chopped dried dates or figs. These dried fruits are healthier than sugar because they add a little more fiber to your breakfast bowl, along with trace amounts of vitamins and minerals. Sugar adds nothing more than calories.

Nuts and Seeds

Almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, ground flaxseeds and other nuts and seeds add earthy flavor and a bit of crunch to a bowl of oatmeal. Nuts and seeds add protein, fiber and healthy oils to your oatmeal. Toasting nuts and seeds enhances their flavor. To toast nuts or seeds, place them in a dry skillet over medium-low heat. Stir regularly for several minutes or until they become fragrant and lightly toasted around the edges. Remove nuts or seeds from the skillet to a plate or cutting board to cool. If you leave them in the hot skillet, they will continue to toast and could burn.

Grains

You can also mix other grains, such as quinoa, amaranth, cracked wheat or spelt, and grain products, such as wheat germ, wheat bran or even additional oat bran, with oatmeal. Adding other grains adds more protein, vitamins and minerals. Depending on the form of oats you are using and the type of grain you wish to add, you may be able to cook the two grains together. Check the label directions to see if the cooking times are similar. If not, cook the grains separately and mix them together before serving. Stir in wheat germ or bran at any point during cooking or after cooking oatmeal.

Spices

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Are Cheerios as good as oatmeal?

A bowl of Cheerios has more fiber (4 grams) than a packet of instant oatmeal (3 g), though both are made of whole oats. Just like oatmeal, whole-oat cold cereals whittle down your LDL cholesterol because they contain beta-glucans--soluble dietary fiber that traps cholesterol-laden bile in your intestines.

Drew, Topeka, KS asked:

What's the best oatmeal substitute?

Answer:

Classic Cheerios. You're looking for fiber and the cholesterol-reducing benefit of oats, right? A bowl of Cheerios has more fiber (4 grams) than a packet of instant oatmeal (3 g), though both are made of whole oats. Just like oatmeal, whole-oat cold cereals whittle down your LDL cholesterol because they contain beta-glucans--soluble dietary fiber that traps cholesterol-laden bile in your intestines. But don't take in a bunch of pointless calories. Stick to original Cheerios, which have just 1 g sugar per serving. "Limit your sugar intake at breakfast to no more than 16 g, but preferably 10 g or less," says Mary Ellen Camire, Ph.D., a professor of food science and human nutrition at the University of Maine. Two guy-size teaspoons of sugar is pushing 10 g. Go to wholegrainscouncil.org for a list of products containing lots of oats.

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