Articles
Porridge Pots and Sachets – The Easy Way to Warm Up at Breakfast
The morning rush to work is hectic, leaving many people to grab an unhealthy or unsubstantial breakfast on the run, or even worse, skip breakfast all together. Cereal is quick and easy and can even be at work .
But dry cereal dry often doesn’t appeal in the cold winter months. Nothing beats a nice warm bowl of porridge to warm you up before work or at your desk.. Enter the very convenient porridge cups and sachets that appear to be dominating supermarket shelves at the moment.
The sachets are fantastic if you’re looking for a quick hot breakfast at home or at work. All you need is a bowl, water and a microwave and they are ready in only two minutes. The very clever pots make porridge portable. No microwave required, just boiling water and a warm hearty breakfast is served right there in its very own bowl, all in under two minutes. The pots are great if you have unorganised children or teenagers who need to eat breakfast in the car during school drop off.
As with many new product inventions, there is a large variety of porridge sachets and pots available in the supermarkets. The table below compares the nutritional value of some popular brands, comparing the original to a flavoured version.
Porridge Pack – Values per serve, serve sizes vary | KJ | Cal | Fat (g) | Sat Fat (g) | Carb (g) | Sugar (g) | Fibre (g) | Sodium (mg) |
Be Natural Sachet Original 35g | 567 | 136 | 3.2 | 0.6 | 20.8 | 0.5 | 3.6 | 50 |
Be Natural Sachet Honey 35g | 571 | 137 | 2.6 | 0.5 | 23 | 7 | 2.9 | 50 |
Uncle Toby’s Quick Sachet Original 34g | 541 | 129 | 3 | 0.6 | 19.3 | 0.3 | 3.3 | 5 |
Uncle Toby’s Quick Sachet Honey 35g | 574 | 137 | 2.3 | 0.6 | 24.3 | 9.2 | 2.2 | 5 |
Uncle Toby’s Cup of Oats Honey 50g | 820 | 196 | 3.4 | 0.9 | 34.7 | 13.1 | 3.2 | 18 |
Uncle Toby’s Cup of Oats Creamy Vanilla 50g | 800 | 192 | 3.2 | 0.6 | 32.7 | 12.2 | 3.8 | 18 |
Quaker Oats So Simple Sachets Original 27g | 429 | 103 | 2.4 | 0.4 | 15.7 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 25 |
Quaker Oats So Simple Sachets Golden Syrup 36g | 584 | 140 | 2.4 | 0.4 | 24.4 | 8.5 | 2.6 | 37 |
Quaker Oats So Simple Pots Original 50g | 790 | 189 | 3.2 | 0.8 | 30.6 | 10.3 | 3.4 | 52 |
Quaker oats So Simple Pots Golden Syrup 50g | 810 | 194 | 3.4 | 0.6 | 34.9 | 15.9 | 3.7 | 52 |
The first thing to notice is that for every option, the Kilojoule content is between 500-800KJ. In comparison, a small bowl of popular ‘ dry healthy’ cereal and milk will set you back around 1200-1600KJ conservatively. Every option contains less than 4g of fat, and practically negligible saturated fat.
These quick and easy pots and sachets get even better when it comes to looking at sugar, fibre and sodium. One serve of any of these will give you less than half the sugar compared to the above mentioned cereal. Some of the porridge options, those that are original or traditional flavour, contain next to no sugar at all. They all offer a very decent serve of fibre not to mention the beta-glucans found in oats, the fibre that has cholesterol lowering ability. Finally, the sodium content is extremely low in the Uncle Toby’s range, and still considerably low in other brands.
So if you are after a warm bowl of porridge in the morning but just don’t have the time to cook oats, rest assured that these quick and easy options are a healthy alternative. Both the sachets and the pots provide a substantial breakfast serve to fill you up on a cold morning.
Added to site on : Monday, 19 August 2013