Oatmeal Facts

I love Oatmeal - I always have. It's so good for you. I found some interesting Oatmeal facts on line and January is National Oatmeal Month. How many of you eat oatmeal on a regular basis?

Oatmeal Facts

Oatmeal Month is celebrated each January, the month in which we buy more oatmeal than any other month of the year. In January 2001, we stocked our pantries with 34.6 million pounds of Quaker® Oats; enough to make 346 million bowls of oatmeal. The most popular oatmeal topping is milk. Other popular toppings are: sugar, fruit (raisins, bananas) and butter/margarine. Among the most unusual are: eggnog, peanut butter, cottage cheese and brewer's yeast. Eighty percent of U.S. households have oatmeal in their cupboard. Quaker® Oats was the first U.S. breakfast cereal to receive a registered trademark, the first to offer a recipe and a premium on its package, and the first to offer trial-size samples. Oatmeal cookies are the No. 1 non-cereal usage for oatmeal, followed by meatloaf and cakes/pies. Oats were one of the earliest cereals cultivated by man. They were known in ancient China as long ago as 7,000 B.C. The ancient Greeks were the first people known to have made a recognizable porridge (cereal) from oats. The portrait of the "Quaker Man" on the package has only been updated three times since its debut in 1877, once in 1946, again in 1957 and, most recently, in 1972. An 18-ounce package of Old Fashioned Quaker® Oats contains about 26,000 rolled oats. Americans eat oatmeal as a breakfast cereal 89 percent of the time; 11 percent of the time we use oatmeal as an ingredient. Quaker Oats is enjoyed by families in over 24 countries. In Malaysia for example, it is knows as Chop Orange Tua, in some countries in South America, Quaker Oats is known as "the oats of the little old man." The oat is called a groat after the hull has been removed. Old Fashioned Oats are groats that are steamed and rolled but not cut. They cook in 5 minutes on the stove-top or 3 minutes in a microwave oven and can be used for baking. Quick Oats are groats that are cut into two or three pieces, then steamed and rolled. They cook in just 1 minute on the stove-top or microwave oven and can also be used for baking.