Q: I noticed you mentioned old fashioned oatmeal quite a bit, I was wondering if eating the single packet flavored servings are ok to eat. (by the way, I'm sooo glad I came across your site. You have answered a lot of my questions!! Thanks)

A: You're welcome, very glad to hear my suggestions are helping you! I am not a fan of those packets at all. They have around 40% of their carbs come from the added sugars (look at the ingredient label -- real oatmeal has no sugar, just the complex carbs while the packets will have something like 13 out of 33 carb grams be sugar). That's just too much. Go with the old-fashioned oatmeal and make it tastier by adding berries, bananas, apples, cinnamon, or even, heck, brown sugar! If you only add two teaspoons of brown sugar to half a cup (uncooked) of old-fashioned oatmeal, the sugar will account for only about 15% of carb calories -- much better than those packets! Of course, it'd be even better to add real fruit instead of the processed sugars, but even adding sugar in moderation is better than those flavored packets.