Fortified Oats

I heard a personal trainer that the three things we all try to eat every day are Fruit, Veg/Salad and fortified oats.

What are fortified oats? I have ready break and honey for breakfast most days but would switch to fortified oats if they were beter for me but i'm not sure what they are exactly?

Fortified oats would be the likes of ready brek, fortified just means it has added iron and vitamins/minerals. Personally I try to avoid them and balance my diet the proper way, foods need to be balanced to work properly in the body and fortified foods aren't really properly balanced.

It's basically to replace what would have been lost when the food has been processed, so you will notice refined/junk-type cereals and white breads/pastas/rices are more likely to be fortified than jumbo oats or brown varieties of rice/pasta/bread. Fortifying is used to add back the micronutrients to help lower the effects of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, nowhere near as good as consuming the natural version though.

Thank you for the information. I'm already on ready break for breakfast most week days so by the sounds of it this isnt really good for me. Perhaps I should looks to swap the ready break for real porridge?

Personally I'd say yes, proper porridge oats are more nutritious, release their energy more slowly to keep you feeling fuller and have a much better taste. Proper oats are slightly nutty tasting and taste fresher than oat-flavoured sawdust. Keep your foods as whole and natural as possible, adding a couple of spoonfuls of ground flaxseed (which is virtually tasteless) a sliced banana and a drizzle of honey if you like will give you extra vitamins, minerals, omega 3, fibre and calcium from the milk if you use it. 

Fortified foods and supplements aren't hugely *bad* for you, but foods are only really fortified when they've been processed and refined. Just something to bear in mind when label searching :)

I want to start incorporating oats into my diet but don't really enjoy porridge -I will start mixing oats with yoghurt and fruit instead I think. Or bake some healthy flapjack if that exists?

You can make muesli by combining jumbo oats, raisins, dried banana, crushed mixed nuts and a (small) sprinkling of yogurt/chocolate covered raisins to give it a taste kick. I like adding freshly chopped banana more than dried though.

You can't really do truly 'healthy' flapjacks, because they need fat and sugar to bind properly and taste good. You can substitute sugar for agave nectar or honey and you can replace butter with 'healthier' fats, you can even add dried fruit, nuts and seeds but your flapjacks will still be high in sugar and deceptively high in calories. It might be 'slower release' or 'better for you' substitutes, but realisitically it's still high in sweet stuff.

It also depends what you want out of your general diet and I prefer the real thing how it's supposed to taste, not a substitute. As a result I don't always eat the 'healthiest' option when I choose a dessert or meal out, but it allows me to stick to a 90% healthy diet with a few tasty things interspersed to keep the interest.

The jumbo oats homemade museli tastes great. Do you have any advice for buying dried bananas, i can't find any that have reasonably low sugar levels

Bananas are quite high sugar when ripe, you won't find 'low sugar' dried banana. If you're worried about the sugar just use fresh green-yellow bananas. The greener the banana the more starchy it is, so it's slower-release as it takes time to break down. Dried fruit contains a high amount of concentrated sugar so you do have to watch how much you're eating. 2 spoonfuls of raisins is just about equivalent to a big bunch of grapes. Don't discount them completely though, the vitamins and minerals are still there and they're high in fibre.

My Home made muesli (store in an airtight box) -

1/2 box jumbo oats
3 large handfuls of nuts (usually almonds, brazils, walnuts or cashews for me). Lightly bashed so they're a nice uneven chunky mix
3 large handfuls of mixed raisins, cranberries, sultanas etc
1 good handful of omega seeds
A handful of luxury fruit such as dried mango/strawberries/goji berries/pineapple
A spoonful of chocolate raisins, yogurt raisins or chocolate chips before eating because they make muesli taste good! 

I normally add fresh fruit before eating, so I slice green-yellow banana, some grated apple or some fresh berries. I also like freshly chopped dates.

I like my muesli to be interesting, the quantities might be a bit off, haven't made it for a while... You just add fruit/nuts/seeds until it looks about right.

There is nothing at all wrong with the sugar in bananas - don't get it confused with the refined stuff. Eating unripe bananas because they are starchy & indigestible is madness if you ask me. Ripe bananas are the best fuel of all for endurance (a banana is not ripe until it is spotted with brown). Don't worry about this 'slow release' thing, it's a complete red herring & one of the great myths of the fitness world. It just means your body is having to do work to get at the energy!!

I agree that ripe bananas are fine, although for me personally I don't like the taste or texture of properly ripe bananas. I like them yellow with a slight tinge of green as they're firmer and I think they taste better.

Greener bananas are less sugary though, so they are slower to break down. It was just worth pointing out the sugar content of dried fruit in general, it IS different to refined sugar but it's easier to over-eat dried fruit.

I've actually cut out most dried fruit now, as I don't think it is such a great option. It's not good for your teeth, for one thing - gets right in the crevices - and these days it's so easy to get fresh anyway. I do take dates when I'm running but I soak them first which helps.

I used to have it all the time, mostly at breakfast but not so much now, although when i used to eat muesli regularly i used to soak it overnight. Im mostly partial to dates or yogurt raisins now.