Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... barbecue ribs!!

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Pinwheel Cookies

Pinwheel Cookies

- 1/2 cup whole wheat spelt flour (65g)

- 1/3 cup almond flour (50g)

- 2/3 cup oat flour (87 g)

- 1 chia egg (1 tbsp ground chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp water)

- 3 tbsp melted coconut oil (42 g)

For the chocolate dough:

- 1 tbsp cocoa or cacao powder

- 2 tbsp date syrup or any other dark syrup of your choice (40 g)

For the vanilla dough:

- 1 generous pinch pure vanilla powder (could sub for 1 tsp vanilla extract)

- 2 tbsp brown rice syrup or any other light syrup of your choice* (40 g)

How to:
1. Make the flour blend by mixing all the flours together with a fork. If you have to make flour of your oats and/or almonds, place the oats, almonds and spelt flour in a food processor and process until you get a well-ground flour.
2. Divide the flour mix into two different bowls. Transfer about 1/2 tbsp of flour from one bowl to the other. To this bowl, add the vanilla powder and to the other bowl (the one with less flour in it), add the cacao or cocoa powder and mix well.
3. Make your chia egg by mixing/whisking the ground chia seeds with 3 tbsp of water. This will swell pretty quickly if you're using ground chia seeds but if not, let the seeds swell for a couple of minutes before proceeding.
4. Melt the coconut oil and pour half of it into the chocolate bowl and the other half into the vanilla bowl. This is much easier if you have access to a kitchen scale so that you can tell when half of it has gone in. Also add chia egg into two and add one half into each bowl.
5. To the chocolate bowl, add the date syrup and stir until you have a thick dough. Repeat with the vanilla bowl but add brown rice syrup instead. *Note: Since brown rice syrup isn't as sweet as other syrups, you may want to add 1/2 tbsp of coconut sugar as well but that is completely up to you.
6. Wrap the doughs in cling film and chill for about 20 minutes in the fridge or until they're fairly firm.
7. Make one rectangle out of each dough by rolling it out with a rolling pin to 1/8-inch thickness. Put one on top of the other and roll lengthwise to create the swirl. Once again wrap the dough in cling film (reuse the old ones!) and place is in the freezer for about ten minutes.
8. Remove the dough from the freezer and slice into separate cookies (1/4-inch thick). At this stage I like to press down on the cookies using the bottom of a glass to flatten them out a little.
9. Bake in the oven (175C) for 18-20 minutes and let cool completely. Store in a cookie jar!

Does high protein explain the low-carb "metabolic advantage"?

In 2012, David Ludwig's group published a paper that caused quite a stir in the diet-nutrition world (1).  They reported that under strict metabolic ward conditions, weight-reduced people have a higher calorie expenditure when eating a very low carbohydrate diet (10% CHO) than when eating a high-carbohydrate diet (60% CHO)*.

In other words, the group eating the low-carb diet burned more calories just sitting around, and the effect was substantial-- about 250 Calories per day.  This is basically the equivalent of an hour of moderate-intensity exercise per day, as Dr. Ludwig noted in interviews (2).  The observation is consistent with the claims of certain low-carbohydrate diet advocates that this dietary pattern confers a "metabolic advantage", allowing people to lose weight without cutting calorie intake-- although the study didn't actually show differences in body fatness.

In Dr. Ludwig's study, calorie intake was the same for all groups.  However, the study had an important catch that many people missed: the low-carbohydrate group ate 50 percent more protein than the other two groups (30% of calories vs. 20% of calories).  We know that protein can influence calorie expenditure, but can it account for such a large difference between groups?

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Healthy Afternoon Snack -Yoplait Greek 100 Yogurt

Hi friends!  I'm definitely back in the workout/eat healthy grind, training with my trainer 3 times a week and doing 30 minutes of cardio 4 times a week.  It feels good to be back to it and I'm already noticing my jeans fitting better again, but being back on my meal plan where I eat every 3-4 hours is where I feel the most benefit.  If you're like a lot of women, you might actually skip meals (and I'm guilty of that too!) but eating consistently throughout the day keeps my energy level constant and there's no energy dip mid-afternoon.

If I'm in a pinch and can't eat a whole meal (or I'm just not hungry enough) around 3:00 p.m. (the time I'm typically heading out the door to pick up my son from school), I'll grab a Greek yogurt because it's delicious, low calorie, and full of protein.  

I was asked by Yoplait to try their Yoplait Greek 100 Yogurt, and since it's something I eat anyway, was happy to try their brand and flavors.  I didn't realize Yoplait made Greek yogurt, so I was surprised to see the varieties of flavors they had.  To name a few:  Coconut, Honey, Banana Caramel, Orange Crème, Apple Pie, Strawberry Cheesecake, Mango, and Key Lime.

My favorites are Peach and Honey.  My husband likes Strawberry Cheesecake and Mango. So yummy!  

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Frank Body Scrub - A Review

For the last two months or so, I've been using this unique body scrub called Frank. He's a pretty cool guy if I may say so myself. Not only because of his good looks but his inside as well. Frank is all natural, paraben-free and smells absolutely scrumptious. So forget about those nasty chemicals that you can't pronounce anyway. Pardon my French but this is the real shit that we're dealing with here.

The ingredient list is actually so simple that I can write it all in this post without boring you to death. Which is exactly what I intend to do. Frank contains: coffee, almond oil, water, salt, brown sugar, orange oil, vitamin E and natural fragrances. That's it. Are you impressed yet? As if that's not enough, this scrub leaves you with a scent as if a ginormous coffee bean with arms and legs were to give you a long, cuddly hug, and leave its dark, musky aroma for you to keep. Oh, it even brings out the hugely embarrassing poet residing deep within me.

How does it feel on your skin then? Well, amazing. There's no irritation at all plus the scrub leaves you soft as a baby's bottom even if you forget to apply body lotion afterwards. We have the almond and orange oils to thank for that I guess. I could also add that I have very sensitive, dry skin that won't stay silent if treated badly. I swell up like a balloon, get glowing red marks everywhere and physically hurt if I use the wrong products. Though I can't speak for everyone, I can certainly assure you that Frank has been very kind to my skin, unlike many of his counterparts.

I know what you're thinking now, "She is totally getting paid to write this!" Let me be 100% honest and say that I will not receive any compensation whatsoever for this post. Frank Body did send me a free sample of their scrub to try and review but that was it. Mark my words, I will never ever recommend anything that I don't believe in. Ever. I do turn down product proposals on a daily basis, just because I don't believe in what some companies have to offer. Anyways, I hope this post wasn't all too boring to read and that some of you might even find it helpful.

Have a great day!

Is Meat Unhealthy? Part VI

In this post, I'll examine the possible relationship between meat consumption and cancer risk.

Is cancer risk even modifiable?

Cancer is caused by the uncontrolled division of a population of rogue cells in the body.  These cells essentially evolve by natural selection to escape the body's multiple anti-cancer mechanisms.  

To a large extent, cancer appears to be a numbers game.  The human body contains about 37 trillion cells.  To get cancer, all you need is one cell that develops key mutations that allow it to shed its built-in restrictions on cell division.  The older you are, the more time you have to accumulate mutations, explaining why cancer risk rises sharply with age.

Unlike other common non-communicable diseases, we don't know to what extent cancer is caused by modifiable diet and lifestyle factors vs. bad luck that's completely outside our control.  Some cancers, such as lung cancer, are typically linked to lifestyle factors like cigarette smoking-- yet the majority of cancers aren't so easily understood.

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Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... croissants!!

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