Clean Eating Gingerbread Oatmeal Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you sweeten oatmeal without sugar? ›

High-sugar toppings like chocolate, syrup, and dried fruit

As Best points out, "some of the worst ingredients that are mistakenly added to healthy overnight oat recipes include chocolate sauce, sugar, syrup, and dried fruit."

Fresh fruit will add fiber, vitamins, minerals and some sweetness to your oatmeal. Fruit's fat-soluble vitamins like A, E and K will best absorb if you add in a fat source like nuts, which will also add extra fiber and protein.

Spice up your morning with Ginger Cinnamon Oatmeal with Nut Butter. In just 5 minutes you can whip up this sweet and savory dish with breakfast. Feel free to substitute cashew butter and chopped cashews or peanut butter and chopped peanuts for almond butter and chopped almonds.

If you need to add a sweetener besides fresh fruit, opt for a natural one like maple syrup or honey. They're still high in sugar and calories, but at least they come with the benefit of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

“Whole grains are beneficial and healthy foods, and I can say that oatmeal is definitely beneficial,” Qi Sun, assistant professor of nutrition, said in the same article. As long as it's sugar-free, “eating oatmeal for breakfast is a good choice.”

Want to keep your heart healthy? Eat oatmeal. Research shows that a daily bowl of oatmeal can lower your levels of total cholesterol and artery-clogging bad cholesterol. (High cholesterol levels can be a contributing factor to heart disease.)

Some people may prefer to cook oats with water, especially those who are lactose intolerant to avoid any digestive issues. For those who can consume dairy, using milk can enhance the overall flavor, protein content, and creaminess of an oatmeal bowl compared to using water.

Compare 100 calories of baked potato to 100 calories of oatmeal, and you find a bit less protein (3 grams vs. 4), a bit more starch (18 grams vs. 16) and a similar mineral profile (potatoes have more potassium, but oats have more selenium). But potatoes beat out oats in just about every vitamin, as well as fiber.

Possible Interactions

Blood-thinning medications: Ginger may increase the risk of bleeding. Talk to your doctor before taking ginger if you take blood thinners, such as warfarin (Coumadin), clopidogrel (Plavix), or aspirin. Diabetes medications: Ginger may lower blood sugar.

Why do people put cinnamon in oatmeal? ›

Provides sustained energy: Oatmeal is a complex carbohydrate that provides a sustained release of energy throughout the day. The addition of honey and cinnamon can also help regulate blood sugar levels and prevent energy crashes.

Steel-cut oats are an excellent soluble fiber to add to the diet that also acts as a prebiotic food. These oats are beneficial to promote anti-inflammatory integrity in the intestinal bacteria. Steel-cut oats are less processed than old fashion rolled oats and have a lower Glycemix Index.

Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, allspice, mace, cardamom and star anise are commonly associated with sweetness. These spices are often used in baked goods and pair especially well with fruit dishes. Vanilla extract can also make food seem sweeter, perhaps due to its aroma.

Combining white sugar with molasses may be a better brown sugar substitute, but if you don't have molasses, other liquid sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, or agave nectar will work as well. You should mix a tablespoon or two of the liquid sweetener into a scant 1 cup of white sugar to replace a cup of brown sugar.