Complicated Oatmeal (It Sounds Like A Name For A Band!)

I make my kids a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast every once in awhile (especially since my friend, Rosie, taught me how delicious it is made with milk - don't ever make it with water!).

Here's how I cook it:  mix together oats and milk, maybe throw in some cinnamon and a dollop of real maple syrup; cook, stirring, on medium heat until it gets to the proper consistency.  Drop a bit of brown sugar on top, serve.


Ingredients:  oats, milk, cinnamon, real maple syrup, brown sugar (molasses, white sugar)

Now, here is the ingredient list for the "healthy" Breakfast Oatmeal from one of those fast food places (you know which one):

Oatmeal Whole grain rolled oats, brown sugar, food starch-modified, salt, natural flavor (plant source), barley malt extract, caramel color.

Diced Apples Apples, calcium ascorbate (a blend of calcium and vitamin C to maintain freshness and color).

Cranberry Raisin Blend Dried sweetened cranberries (sugar, cranberries), California raisins, golden raisins, sunflower oil, sulfur dioxide (preservative).

Light Cream Milk, cream, sodium phosphate, datem, sodium stearoyl lactylate, sodium citrate, carrageenan. CONTAINS: MILK.

Final Analysis:   ~It takes about five minutes to make your own oatmeal at home (using quick-cooking oatmeal) and two minutes to wash out the pot. ~It probably takes the same amount of time to go through the drive thru.                                          ---------------- ~You can sit at a table at home to eat - or you can eat in your car or at your desk and take the chance of glopping oatmeal on your clothes or workplace.                                          ----------------- ~You're eating five ingredients when you make it at home (counting brown sugar as one ingredient).                                      ~You're eating a whopping 21 ingredients if you eat it from that fast food place.                                  --------------------- ~The fast food Breakfast Oatmeal contains fruit. ~At home, you can easily throw some some raisins and dried sweetened cranberries into your cooking oatmeal (I will attest that this is awesome! Oh, and this raises your ingredient count to seven).  Diced apple takes a bit more work but is not impossible.  You can add extra raisins and dried sweetened cranberries to get your daily serving of fruit.   How did something so simple become so complicated?