Who doesn't love a hot bowl of porridge topped with a drizzle of honey on a cold winter's morning? Oats are a fantastic breakfast option but with so many varieties out there, how do you choose which to buy?
To help you make an informed decision, we sifted through more than 70 different types of oats and porridge, focusing on health and cost.
We split our analysis into two categories: porridge, which is usually cooked or soaked overnight, and plain rolled oats, which can be cooked or eaten raw.
On this page:
- Rolled vs quick vs steel-cut oats: What's the difference?
- Top porridges
- Best value oats
- Gluten-free porridge
- Wheat-free oats
- Are oats good for you?
- Porridge and oats with a nutrition boost
Rolled vs quick vs steel-cut oats: What's the difference?
Whether you should pick up 'rolled', 'quick' or 'steel-cut' oats at the supermarket depends on how much time you have, and whether or not you're a fan of a nuttier flavour and/or a chewier texture in your morning porridge.
- Rolled oats, also referred to as traditional oats, are produced by hulling (removing the outer husk) then steaming oat grains (also known as oat groats), pressing between rollers and then drying. To prepare them you simply add water or milk, and cook for about five minutes on the stove or three in a microwave.
- Quick oats have been pressed thinner than rolled oats. You prepare them in the same way as rolled oats, but they cook faster, and the resulting porridge is smoother.
- Steel-cut oats are produced by removing the outer husk and then cutting the whole oat groat into several pieces using steel discs. Steel-cut oats take around 20 minutes to cook, but if you soak them overnight to soften the grain they can take just a couple of minutes in the microwave. They have a nuttier flavour than rolled or quick oats, and a chewier texture.
Top porridges
When looking at porridge options with a Health Star Rating of 5 and no estimated added sugars, these are the ones that came out on top.
Macro Wholefoods Five Grain Porridge 750g
- Serving size: 30g
- Price: 47c per 100g
- Protein: 3.4g per serve, 11.3g per 100g
- Fibre: 4.1g per serve, 13.5g per 100g
Uncle Tobys Quick Sachet Big Bowl Original 368g
- Serving size: 46g
- Price: $1.58 per 100g
- Protein: 5.9g per serve, 12.8g per 100g
- Fibre: 4.2g per serve, 9.2g per 100g
Carman's No Added Sugar Porridge 5 Grain Super Seed 320g
- Serving size: 40g
- Price: $2.03 per 100g
- Protein: 5.3g per serve, 13.2g per 100g
- Fibre: 5.24g per serve, 13.1g per 100g
Carman's No Added Sugar Porridge Almond, Pecan and Hazelnut 320g
- Serving size: 40g
- Price: $2.03 per 100g
- Protein: 5.9g per serve, 14.7g per 100g
- Fibre: 4.3g per serve, 10.7g per 100g
Best value oats
Plain oats are a versatile grain that you can use in just about anything – they make as much sense with mushrooms and eggs as they do with bananas, honey and cinnamon. Australia's rising cost of living is front of mind for most people, especially when it comes to groceries, so we've rounded up the cheapest oats we could find (based on the price per 100g).
We looked at oats closest to a 750g pack size where possible, but there are larger packet sizes available that may be cheaper per unit.
All of these oats products have a Health Star Rating of 5.
Goldenvale Australian Rolled Oats 750g
- Serving size: 50g
- Price: 17c per 100g
- Protein: 5.9g per serve, 11.7g per 100g
- Fibre: 5.1g per serve, 10.1g per 100g
Goldenvale Quick Oats 750g
- Serving size: 50g
- Price: 17c per 100g
- Protein: 6.4g per serve, 12.8g per 100g
- Fibre: 5.7g per serve, 11.3g per 100g
Woolworths Australian Rolled Oats 750g
- Serving size: 30g
- Price: 19c per 100g
- Protein: 3.9g per serve, 13.1g per 100g
- Fibre: 3.2g per serve, 10.8 per 100g
Woolworths Quick Oats 750g
- Serving size: 30g
- Price: 19c per 100g
- Protein: 3.9g per serve, 13.1g per 100g
- Fibre: 3.2g per serve, 10.8 per 100g
Black & Gold Quick Oats 750g
- Serving size: 35g
- Price: 35c per 100g
- Protein: 3.9g per serve, 13.2g per 100g
- Fibre: 3.5g per serve, 11.7g per 100g
Gluten-free porridge
These days there's a good variety of gluten-free options on the porridge shelf and we included eight of them in this review, with ingredients ranging from brown rice flakes and buckwheat to almond meal. These options do range in nutritional content, so if you're looking for a gluten-free porridge that's similar nutritionally to oats, go for the Orgran gluten-free porridge quinoa, which has similar compositions of protein, fibre and carbohydrates.
Wheat-free oats
Wheat-free oats have been grown away from any wheat crops so there's no cross-contamination with gluten-containing crops like barley. However, according to the Food Standards Code, these oats aren't allowed to be labelled gluten free. Wheat-free oats can be consumed by people with a specific wheat allergy or intolerance to wheat, but not by those with coeliac disease (where gluten is the issue). If you'd like to find out if eating oats will affect your coeliac disease, speak to a doctor.
Are oats good for you?
Oats are rich in beta-glucan, a soluble fibre that helps keep your blood cholesterol down. They're also low GI, which means their carbohydrate is slowly absorbed into your system, providing you with energy for hours after you've eaten. And they're packed with B vitamins, vitamin E, protein and minerals. Eating oats is associated with protective effects against heart disease in adults.
Whether they're steamed and rolled like traditional or quick oats, or chopped up like steel-cut oats, they're still complete whole grains with the bran (the outer layer which is a good source of fibre, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals) and germ (the smallest part of the grain rich in vitamin E and other vitamins and minerals) intact – so they have similar nutritional properties.
Flavoured varieties have a lower Health Star Rating
Most of the porridge oats you can buy in supermarkets receive a Health Star Rating of 5. The exceptions are the various flavoured instant and quick oat varieties. These are usually high in sugar – as much as 19.9g per 100g, compared with about 1g per 100g for traditional options – and this can knock their Health Star Rating down to 4 or lower.
So if you can't resist adding a dollop of honey or a teaspoon of brown sugar to your porridge, you might want to stick with the unflavoured varieties.
Porridge and oats with a nutrition boost
As you can see from the top three porridges, 'no added sugar', 'high fibre' and 'multigrain' all serve to boost a food product's nutrition rating. The more fibre and less sugar a food product has, the more favourable its Health Star Rating.
With a whopping 23% protein, we have Carman's protein-rich porridge sachets, with increased protein through the addition of wheat protein. These sachets contain more than double the average protein content of the other porridges we looked at (but if you're sensitive to gluten, give them a miss).
In the oats category we saw products with boosted protein, fibre, omega 3 and cholesterol lowering abilities thanks to healthy ingredients like oat fibre, wheat protein, plant sterols and linseeds and chia seeds. All of these oats have a Health Star Rating of 5, so if you're after a specific nutrient boost give them a go, but be prepared to pay double the price as the average price per 100g is $1.20 compared to 60 cents for regular oats.
How we got our results
We categorised a wide range of breakfast cereal products and collected their label data. We then calculated Health Star Ratings and used the George Institute for Global Health's FoodSwitch app to determine added sugars per 100g.
For porridge we looked at the Health Star Rating and added sugars per 100g, and for oats we looked at price alone.
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
