Oatmeal is America’s Favorite Porridge.

Here in the US of A, we like breakfast cereal a whole lot. We also like things like made-up holidays (it’s called festivity, have you heard of it?), and shareable social media content.

October 29, 2018 is National Oatmeal Day!

What! How absolutely timely and fun. To celebrate, porridge.blog has gathered some fun Internet Facts about National Oatmeal Day.

We learned about the holiday from the websites National Day Calendar and NationalToday. Apparently the holiday has no origin and was… created…? Perhaps to market oatmeal…
Judging by search results, more Americans prefer to make oatmeal into cookies versus porridge. That being said, overnight oats is a challenger coming in HOT.
Number of people who searched “is oatmeal healthy” in 2017: 79200
Number of people who found a video or article telling them that oatmeal is healthy in 2017: 79200

Here is one such oatmeal health video that we found just for you.

Oatmeal’s Greatest Hits: A Timeline

1600s: Oats arrive in America

Oats are planted and grown by European colonizers in North America. They are a versatile crop used for food, animal feed, and horse bedding. Oats move west with Manifest Destiny settlers.

1850: Ferdinand Schumacher founds Oat Company

His cereal milling company will be trademarked in 1877 as “Quaker Oats.”

1966: Quaker Introduces Instant Oatmeal

Flavors such as maple brown sugar follow 4 years later.

1977: First Oatmeal Festival in Texas

Oatmeal, Texas is taken off the state map. In response, the small town holds an Oatmeal Festival. The festival is sponsored by National Oats.

1982: Hall and Oat(e)s turn the tables on grain/human consumption

“Maneater” reaches number one on the Billboard hot 100 chart.

National Oatmeal Day Comic — Whoa-oat here she g-oats, watch oat boy, she’ll chew you up!

1990: Oatmilk Invented

Oat is totally trendy in the 80s, as it has been shown to lower cholesterol levels. Swedish scientist, Richard Öste, realizes that the grain is not just healthily composed nutrition, but also tastes good in liquid form. He invents what will later become the drink called Oatly.

1994: World (Oat) Porridge Making Competition held in Carrbridge, Scotland

The Golden Spurtle is hosted in Carrbridge, Scotland. The oaty cook-off draws competitors from across the globe to compete for the coveted Golden Spurtle trophy and title of “World Porridge Making Champion.” All competitors must use only oats, salt, and water.

1997: Quaker Oatmeal gets FDA Health Claim

Oatmeal packages are labelled a “heart healthy” food. Oat’s claim to health food fame is on the rise.

2009: Bob’s Red Mill declared World’s Best Oatmeal

Porridge.blog’s favorite Oregonian Miller represents the states in Scotland’s Golden Spurtle World Oatmeal-Making Championship. Bob’s steel cut oats are THE BEST in both 2009 and 2016 (and every day in our hearts and tummies).

2010: “Oatmeal (In Your Face Cholesterol)” Released on Youtube

ParryGripp, Emmy award winning youtube bard whose muses are animals and food, releases “Oatmeal (In Your Face Cholesterol)” (77k views). It is a highly irritating song, and sets the stage for another Youtube Oatmeal hit, “1, 2, Oatmeal.”

2013: World’s First All-Oatmeal Restaurant Opens in New York

OatMeals restaurant opens in New York, serving all oatmeal dishes. Oatmeal is super trendy.

2015: Porridge To Go

Quaker takes advantage of National Oatmeal Day to pull a PR Stunt. Gives away thousands of instant oatmeal cups as a part of their “Off You Go” (to a healthy start, on a great day, fill in the blank…) campaign. Porridge to go is weird.