Not Safe: Quaker Steel Cut Oats - Quick 3-minute

[colormist]

My wonderful husband bought me some oats the other day. He bought me the 1-minute oats, which have the consistency of pudding when cooked. I found them rather "meh" so when I went out grocery shopping and saw Quaker Steel Cut Oats - Quick 3-Minute, I was intrigued.

Here's the webpage, so you know what to avoid: www.quakeroats.com/products/hot-cereals/steel-cut-oats-quick-cook.aspx

I made them for the first time this morning. About a half cup of oats (a bit more than the 1/3 cup serving size) and milk. I was not fond of the texture--which was more like Cream of Wheat. First couple bites and I checked the label again. It tasted quite sweet, but the ingredients only listed Steel Cut Oats--nothing else. Clearly my imagination and I went back to eating the oats and wondering if I was going to pay for that later.

It's now 1.5 hours later. My mouth keeps filling up with saliva and I have a pressing need to vomit. I checked the label a fourth time and look at the sugars: 1 gram per serving. That means I just ate about 1.5 grams of sugar. If I can't manage to vomit sometime soon, my weekend is going to be shot.

They certainly don't make it easy for us HFIers to exist in this world.

[jenn123]

So sorry to hear you are not feeling well. Please keep us posted. Feel better soon ❤️

[antonia]

Oh no, you poor thing! Palmera has often rejected instant oatmeal. She says it tastes "spicy". I've wondered since the instant oatmeals come in different flavors whether there is cross contamination. She really likes Bobs Red Mill thick cut, rolled oats. They take only 10 minutes and the flavor and texture is great. Not sticky and goopy like instant. I hope you're feeling better real soon.

[Stefanie (Ziba)]

It is so strange when some foods have 0g sugar and some have 1g with the same ingredients (i.e. some types of oats or some types of crackers). Clearly, there is nothing in the ingredient lists that would give us pause but it does make one wonder.
I hope you are feeling better Colormist!

[colormist]

I am feeling better--not 100% yet, but I'm sitting upright and going on short walks around the block with my doggy. I drank a LOT of water and only ate 100% safe foods for a few days so I wouldn't tax my system further. I was really expecting kidney pain, but that didn't happen (thankfully!). Still a little nauseated and not hungry at all. In fact, I can't even tell when I'm hungry until I stand up and realized I'm about to collapse from lack of energy.

I was so angry after eating that oatmeal. I really want to trust food manufacturers, but I should know better by now. I have noticed the pre-packaged instant oatmeals tasting strange, but never with the big canisters. I wrote a really grumpy review on Quaker's website and they deleted it! I just wrote that there are undisclosed added sugars in the product and it made me sick. So I wrote a second review that said the texture is awful, gross, and the product is sweetened--which for some reason they allowed. I guess they didn't want me posting that it made me sick. UGH.

Just makes me realize I should trust my nose and tastebuds more. It's such a flipping waste of money to spend extra on supposed "HFI safe" products, only to realize after you open them that you can't eat them. I mean, you can't donate this stuff to a food pantry after it's opened and heaven knows my husband won't touch HFI-safe foods with a ten-foot pole.

I'll check out Bob's Mill Oats! I definitely do not trust Quaker anymore.

[antonia]

Glad to hear you're on the mend Colormist.

I'm looking at the oats in my cupboard and both rolled oats and steel cut oats have one gram sugar per serving listed. I've noticed that a lot of foods generally recognized as HFI safe will have 1 gram total sugar per serving, sometimes more. So, it must be that in these foods those sugars are mostly glucose or maybe in the form of indigestible fiber? Also, a lot people think manufacturers run composition analysis on their products to create corresponding labels, but this is not true. Composition analysis is really expensive and labels are created using composition databases (like the ones people often reference on this board) and labeling software to calculate per serving values. So differences we see in sugar values for the same food among different brands or companies probably depends on which composition databases is used, what the designated serving size is, or even user error.

I feel better using products from a company like Bobs Red Mill because they don't make a lot of sweetened food products like Quaker does. Also, I've worked for a dry mix company in the past and know that they often use granulated sugar to "clean down" their equipment. Dry systems have to be cleaned with dry ingredients, water is the number one enemy of a dry mix plant. The grit of the sugar running through the pipes and mixers removes caked on build up left behind from other products, especially those with sticky sweeteners added. Sugar is, ironically, use to clean allergens from the system too. So, Colormist, I'm guessing you got some product with cross contamination. Unless Quaker is using sugar in some way to make those quick cooking oats. But my understanding of quick cooking steel cut oats is that the grain is simply cut into smaller pieces so that water will penetrate the grain faster.

[lucky]

Antonia,

Wow. Just... wow.
That’s incredible information.
Thank-you.

[colormist]

I had no idea about dry goods manufacturers using sugar to clean their equipment. It's a veritable minefield trying to find HFI-safe foods in this world!.

I would think cornmeal would be a better alternative to clean the equipment. Sugar is so sticky.

I'm used to spotting and eating foods that have been contiminated (bite sized shredded wheat and similar off brands are a huge offender). They always taste faintly sweet. This tasted more like the food was preserved with sugar. Way sweeter than 1 gram per serving that the box label proclaimed. Either that or I got the first batch through the machines after they cleaned everything with sugar.

[antonia]

I wish there was some way to increase the awareness of HFI (and other inborn errors of metabolism). I can assure you that the food industry is not aware how dangerous undeclared sugars in labeling or cross contamination of sugars during manufacture are to some people. I think I read some where that Celiac Disease has the same incidence rate as HFI. Why Celiacs has received so much attention from the medical community and media, and diseases like HFI do not, I don't really understand.

[Stefanie (Ziba)]

There must be a lot more money in researching celiac and having pro-celiac foods. With celiac, you need food substitutes which means someone will still make money. With HFI, it is elimination, so businesses are less likely to care even when they find out about it. It is very convenient for the food industry to have gluten free foods become popular so that the corn, rice and other grain sectors can have a bigger share. Can you imagine if "big sugar" had to give up its stronghold over US products?

It is so frustrating to not know whether a seemingly safe food bought from the store is contaminated. Traveling/being away from home is equally frustrating. When we go out with family and I bring all my son's food (as always), family members don't understand why he can't just "have a burger". I say "well, I am pretty sure that the cook who works for $7/ hour is not careful to wash his hands/change his gloves when he goes from slicing tomatoes to grilling a patty." We only eat burgers at Five Guys for this reason because I called the company to verify no cross-contamination and the kitchen is open so I watch them grill the patties from start to finish (and nothing else touches the grill there). He always feels and acts fine after eating there, so that is our one place we feel "normal" eating out together.