Day 18: Hidden Proteins
Back in the days when I suffered from nutritional illiteracy, I thought that bread, potatoes, corn, and other root vegetables only contained carbohydrates. I had no idea that I can eat a complete protein meal by mixing rice and beans. I didn’t know that gluten was a protein. These nutritional nuances can sometimes evade even the most educated person especially if one does not know how to read nutrition labels.
Below is an example of a breakfast that people may not know has proteins: my version of champorado.
In the Philippines, we ate rice porridge a lot, but it’s low in fiber and high in sugar and carbs, especially if you use condensed milk. How do you “healthify” it?
Use oats (5 gm of protein/ 1/2 cup dry oats), unsweetened cocoa powder, and soy milk (7gm of protein/cup). Mix in chia seeds (5 gm/ 2.5 tbsp), flaxseed (3 gm/ 2 tbsp), wheat germ (4 gm/ 2 tbsp) = 24 gms of protein for a chocolate oat porridge.
I’m 50 kg x 0.8 gm/kg of protein needed = 40 gm of protein per day. That meets more than half of my daily allowance. Not bad, don’t you think? Drizzle with honey and top with berries. This is a VERY heavy breakfast for me. Try it.
You know why? The fiber content of this breakfast is 21 gms out of the 25 gms of daily fiber intake recommended for women. Guess which of these ingredients pack the most fiber per serving size. You’ll be very surprised.
Read the labels below and write your answer in the comment section under #Day18 of the 40-Day Challenge in our Culinary Medicine Facebook group.
Recall that anything close to 20% is high and close to 5% is low. We want the good stuff like fiber to be high and the bad stuff like saturated fat, added sugar, and sodium to be low.
Fun fact: My husband’s way of preparing this chocolate porridge is a no-cook easy-breakfast-to-go. He mixes all the ingredients in a jar and lets it soak overnight. The next day, he adds nuts and raisins, and has a ready to eat nutritious breakfast.
Below is an example of a breakfast that people may not know has proteins: my version of champorado.
In the Philippines, we ate rice porridge a lot, but it’s low in fiber and high in sugar and carbs, especially if you use condensed milk. How do you “healthify” it?
Use oats (5 gm of protein/ 1/2 cup dry oats), unsweetened cocoa powder, and soy milk (7gm of protein/cup). Mix in chia seeds (5 gm/ 2.5 tbsp), flaxseed (3 gm/ 2 tbsp), wheat germ (4 gm/ 2 tbsp) = 24 gms of protein for a chocolate oat porridge.
I’m 50 kg x 0.8 gm/kg of protein needed = 40 gm of protein per day. That meets more than half of my daily allowance. Not bad, don’t you think? Drizzle with honey and top with berries. This is a VERY heavy breakfast for me. Try it.
You know why? The fiber content of this breakfast is 21 gms out of the 25 gms of daily fiber intake recommended for women. Guess which of these ingredients pack the most fiber per serving size. You’ll be very surprised.
Read the labels below and write your answer in the comment section under #Day18 of the 40-Day Challenge in our Culinary Medicine Facebook group.
Recall that anything close to 20% is high and close to 5% is low. We want the good stuff like fiber to be high and the bad stuff like saturated fat, added sugar, and sodium to be low.
Fun fact: My husband’s way of preparing this chocolate porridge is a no-cook easy-breakfast-to-go. He mixes all the ingredients in a jar and lets it soak overnight. The next day, he adds nuts and raisins, and has a ready to eat nutritious breakfast.
Nutrition Label of Chia Seed
Nutrition Label of Flaxseed
Nutrition Label of Wheat Germ
PROTEIN and CARBOHYDRATE CHALLENGE #4
Try eating this breakfast chocolate porridge for 3 days and stick to the guidelines of less than 5gm of added sugar when adding sweeteners. Don’t know how? Read the nutritional label. If a sweetener contains 15 grams of sugar per tablespoon, divide by 3 and you have 1 tsp of sweetener with 5 grams of sugar. Stick to that portion size.