Quaker Oats - Old Fashioned
 

I bought a container of Quaker Oats - Old Fashioned and am eating them uncooked without adding any sugar. But when I looked at the nutrition info, it says there is 1g of sugar in a serving. Did they add sugar to it or are oats supposed to have some sugar?

Should I switch to a different brand to avoid canceling out the health effects?

vassock - 1 g of sugar is nothing to worry about. Even when eating on South Beach, I am allowed cereal with under 7 g of sugar. Oatmeal is also considered low glycemic, so that tiny bit of sugar won't raise your sugar levels.

Sugars and sugar are different. The ingredients list is where you want to check for things like sugar, cane sugar, evaporated cane syrup, high fructose corn syrup, etc... Those are all added sugar that were not naturally in whatever you are eating. Oats and other carbohydrates naturally have sugars in them and you need some sugar as carbs are the energy you need to move and be active throughout the day.

Another example is fruit - an apple is naturally sweet as is a banana. Neither have white sugar or anything similar added, just plain old fruit. Now for weight loss I personally aim for the lower glycemic index of the fruits so the overall blood sugar increase is less because I am diabetic, but both are fine in moderation and with bananas if they are slightly green they are less sweet than older bananas.

Hope that helps!
Rae