Granola - a Grand Breakfast (Quaker Oat Granola)

Member Name: Pharmtastic

Product:	Quaker Oat Granola
Date:	14/11/08 (130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tastes great, quite healthy

Disadvantages: Might be hard for some

Oat Granola is part of my new drive to be [a little, at least!] more healthy.

Granola is a generic term for a type of food [much as is, say, muesli]. The main ingredients should be oats, honey and nuts or seeds: after that it can be a bit vague.

The Quaker Oats variety is oat based [rolled oats being 55% of the ingredients] and also has 9.8% raisins. Sugar is the second listed ingredient, so must account for more than 9.8% - this explains why it quite a sweet taste [there is also some honey].

The cereal is presented as clusters of the oats and other ingredients, which are quite crunchy in nature. I quite like this crunchiness, but I suppose this may be problem for some denture wearers [I don't wear dentures, and if I'm talking rubbish, please forgive me]. I'm a raisin fan, and there seems to be a generous amount in each pack.

The formula makes for quite a dense product: the pack contains 600g, but is quite small [about half the volume of a 600g pack of Cherios we have in the cupboard]. The dense and concentrated form took me by surprise when I first ate it: you need only about half of what you might normally consider a portion. The bowl looks quite empty, but you soon get full.

I like to add a few extras - pumpkin seeds are my current favourite.

A portion contains 2.6g of fibre [1.1g soluble] and so provides about 10% of an adult's recommended amount.

The pack [which, incidentally, has been updated from the one shown on the site, so you may have to look harder to find it on the shelf] claims it has "30-50% less fat than most other granola cereals" - but I'm not sure with what it has been compared.

Also on ciao.

Summary: Nice way to start the day