Naked Oats: Not So Naked!

Have I got a story for you! A couple weeks ago, I was on the hunt for a new food to try (this is what dietitians do in their free time). I started thinking about how I will probably eat more oatmeal as the weather gets cooler and how I like to add some protein powder to my oats. Truth be told, I actually love the flavored Naked Whey protein powders because they use a small amount of real sugar instead of artificial sweeteners (this is very difficult to find in the flavored protein powder market). After browsing online a while, I stumbled across Naked Oats. Based on my once over of the nutrition label and ingredients , it looked to be oats mixed with protein powder, along with some added sugar and flavoring. The product reviews looked decent and I already had a good impression of the Naked brand, so I placed an order for the Green Apple Cinnamon and eagerly awaited its delivery. 

A couple days later, I tried the Naked Oats. My excitement quickly faded to disappointment. What was that weird smell? And that even weirder taste? I immediately started looking at the label to see if I had missed something on the ingredient list. Then I saw it: "fermented cane sugar (Reb-M)." I must have seen that during my intial inspection before I ordered it, but I just passed it over because I didn't recognize it as an artificial sweetener (and thought it was some other kind of natural sugar I wasn't familiar with). Well, the joke was on me. Here is a description of fermented cane sugar, or Reb-M: 

"Yeast is used to ferment sugarcane, which creates a sweetener that is naturally present in stevia. Reb M has a reputation of being the most sugar-like sweetening component in stevia, but it generally is only found in low concentrations in the plant. This proprietary technology can transform sugarcane into Reb M, which is a zero-calorie and zero-net-carbohydrate sweetener."

I was pissed. I knew this was why I thought it tasted so awful (by the way, the aftertaste stayed with me most of the day). Then I saw some reviewers mentioning that they thought it tasted like it had an artificial sweetener in it, but couldn't figure out why by looking at the ingredient list (no kidding, the dietitian couldn't either!) And Naked Oats had the nerve to say there were "no artificial sweeteners." I contacted Amazon and told them I was a victim of false advertising and got a refund. Then I posted my FIRST EVER product review on Amazon. That is how mad I was. Enjoy my review below, and buyer beware!