Super-food… and super tasty.

Quinoa is one of those foods that is so versatile, healthy and easy to make part of your regular nourishing food-choices. It does not taste like much on its own, but mixing it with vegetables and good healthy fats makes quinoa a fast and easy meal, tasty, healthy and nourishing. The interesting thing about quinoa is that it is high in protein and considered a complete protein, so your quinoa salad can substitute meat. Many use quinoa instead of grain. It has very low carbohydrate/starch content and very high fat (omega-3 fatty acid) contents, so it is fantastic for mastering your appetite and cravings by balancing your blood-sugar levels, because it is low-carb, high-fiber, high-fat and high-nutrient.

Quinoa studies.

Here are some reasons why you might want it:

• Researchers have recently taken a close look at certain antioxidant phytonutrients in quinoa, and two flavonoid—quercetin and kaempferol—are now known to be provided by quinoa in especially concentrated amounts. In fact, the concentration of these two flavonoids in quinoa can sometimes be greater than their concentration in high-flavonoid berries like cranberry or lingonberry.
• Recent studies are providing us with a greatly expanded list of anti-inflammatory phytonutrients in quinoa. This unique combination of anti-inflammatory compounds in quinoa may be the key to understanding preliminary animal studies that show decreased risk of inflammation-related problems (including obesity) when animals are fed quinoa on a daily basis. The list of anti-inflammatory phytonutrients in quinoa is now known to include: polysaccharides like arabinans and rhamnogalacturonans; hydroxycinnamic and hydroxybenzoic acids; flavonoids like quercetin and kaempferol; and saponins including molecules derived from oleanic acid, hederagenin and serjanic acid. Small amounts of the anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acid, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), are also provided by quinoa.

(from World’s Healthiest Foods)

What makes you feel full?

The fiber in the vegetables and the good fats are essential ingredients to eat to feel full. The trick to weight-loss is to feel nourished, satisfied and full from your meals. In my book EAT TO FEEL FULL I explain how our hunger makes us eat things we would otherwise have no problem saying no to when we want to be and feel healthy, but hunger is one of those triggers that always gets us in trouble.

Take a look at my HOW TO video for About.com  – the picture below the video is what the finished dish looks like.

Tasty Quinoa HOW TO video