Quaker Vs. Nature's Path: Who Has The Best Instant Oatmeal?

From Quaker's revamped website

This post was originally going to be a review of  Nature's Path's Organic Instant Hot Oatmeal. I compared it to the horrible, sugary commercial instant oats I remembered from brands like Quaker -- it's like if I wanted a breakfast that tasted like candy, I'd go to Dunkin Donuts.

But in the course of double-checking the nutritional information against Quaker's new extensive line of instant oatmeal, I realized to my horror that in some ways, the Quaker brand seemed to be superior nutritionally -- less sugar, less carbs. Then again, Nature's Path boasts an all-organic list of ingredients. I'm so confused! What is the better instant oatmeal to buy?

Let's first take a look at Quaker. The company has apparently changed their image quite a bit, focusing hard on healthy living on its website (even its mascot has apparently lost some weight). There is a tremendous amount of instant oat options to choose from, including low sugar, high fiber, weight loss, and organic varieties.

Nature's Path instant oatmeals boast "no pesticides," "no preservatives," "no additives," and "no irradiation": all words I love to hear. It is awesome to start my day eating food that is not irradiated. They are made with organic ingredients, and use natural sweeteners for their flavored varieties. Like Quaker, their packaging and website has also recently received a makeover.

Quaker loses points with me when I compare their regular instant brand to Nature's Path, because there's all these crazy ingredients in the former like guar gum and caramel color, and the source is not organic. But when comparing Nature's Path with Quaker's organic brand, things change. The only ingredient in Quaker's Organic Instant Oatmeal, Regular Flavor is "organic whole grain rolled oats." That sounds pretty darn good! When I compare the nutritional info between the two, Quaker seems to majorly kick Nature Path's butt in things like sodium, fat, carbs, and more!

But: Nature's Path suggested serving size (per packet) is 50 grams...whereas Quaker's is 28 grams. Doing a quick comparison of nutritional info at the store, I might have missed that. Adjusted for comparable serving size, the two are on much more equal footing. Quaker has more fat, though Nature's Path has a little bit of saturated ("bad") fat. But the most glaring difference is in sodium content. Quaker's Organic has 0 sodium, and Nature's Path has 120 mg of sodium. That's a lot of sodium. Quaker also has no sugar, and Nature's Path has one gram.

Looking at the comments section one Nature's Path regular instant oatmeal page, I've noted that a number of customers have complained about the salt and sugar content. To Nature Path's credit, the webmaster has answered each criticism with a thank-you for the feedback and a commitment to produce a better product. But what is upsetting to me is that it would never of occurred to me that the "health food store brand" of something like this would have more sodium than a "big brand." I make these snap judgements without doing any research. I see "organic" and "nature" on a label and I assume that it is automatically going to be great for me.

This isn't my final word on Nature's Path instant oatmeal. I do like products like their Flax Plus flavor, which helps me get cholesterol-fighting flax into my breakfast. I tend to go to more health food stores than regular supermarkets, and Quaker products are usually not stocked there. Unless I go to a very big supermarket chain, I do not see the organic Quaker offerings. Finally, if I have a choice between supporting a big corporate brand and a smaller brand, I'd prefer to choose the latter.

But I don't want a lot of sugar or sodium in my instant oats. I eat instant oats because I assume they're healthy...unlike, say, a danish. The whole point of me going to a health food store is to not only eat healthy...but for the convenience of having all the healthy food in one place so I don't have to check everything. Which is naive and lazy attitude to have.

Compare Quaker Organic Instant Oatmeal, Regular and Nature's Path Original Oatmeal for yourself.