What's in My Oatmeal?

In an effort to be more aware of what is in the food that I eat, I decided to put my morning breakfast of Heart Healthy Whole Grain Strawberries & Cream Quaker Instant Oatmeal to the test.

Before looking at the ingredients on the package, my suspicion was that I would find three main ingredients, and then a bunch of other additives. Those three main ingredients I expected to see: oats, sugar, and dehydrated strawberries.

Here is exactly word for word what the Heart Healthy Whole Grain Strawberries & Cream Quaker Instant Oatmeal listed as their ingredients:

* Whole grain rolled oats
* Sugar
* Flavored and colored fruit pieces (dehydrated apples - treated with sodium sulfite to promote color retention, artificial strawberry flavor, citric acid, red 40)

(and a bunch of those other additives I referred to earlier)
*Creaming agent (maltodextrin, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, whey, sodium caseinate), Salt, Calcium carbonate, Guar gum, Oat flour, Artificial flavor, Citric acid, Niacinamide, Reduced iron, Vitamin A palmitate, Pyridoxine hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Thiamin mononitrate, Folic acid

So..... if I went to a farmers market and sold dehydrated apples covered with sodium sulfite, artificial strawberry flavor, citric acid and red 40, and told people they were strawberries, would anyone buy them?

Well, some people might. But if I told people that those strawberries were really dehydrated apples covered with red dye and artificial strawberry flavoring, how many people would buy them?

Now, am I trying to tell you that the Heart Healthy Whole Grain Strawberries & Cream Quaker Instant Oatmeal is not a fairly healthy breakfast? Not exactly. I mean realistically, this fake strawberry oatmeal is still healthier than hundreds of other things we could put in our mouths as a quick breakfast.

However, when I buy oatmeal that has strawberries listed on the package, I would hope that we could trust (even to a small extent) businesses that sell products, to actually sell what it is they say they are selling. I truly loathe how our food industry and businesses are able to mislead buyers into thinking they are getting something other than what they truly are.

If you want to sell a strawberry product, then put strawberries into your product. Do not try to save money by replacing strawberries (which are more expensive), with a cheaper replacement such as an apple.

I for one will not condone this type of business practice, and I will no longer be buying this product. As consumers, we need to show businesses that we will not put up with their schemes to fatten their bank accounts by way of effectively tricking us as consumers.

So..... do you know what you ate for breakfast, lunch or dinner? If you know of any other food products that do not contain the ingredients that you think they would or should, feel free to post them below. The more aware that we all are, the better prepared we will be to make decisions.