Category: Vegetarian

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Breakfast Healthy Low Carb Vegetarian

The oatmeal breakfast; is oatmeal healthy or not?

Many people think that oatmeal is healthy for breakfast, but is that so? Oatmeal is full of dietary fiber and it is associated with various health effects such as lowering LDL Cholesterol and even fat loss. Yet oatmeal can be at least as bad as bread or a croissant. I figured out how you can take advantage of an oatmeal breakfast without the bad side effects and also share some delicious recipes with you.

But first … oatmeal in a nutshell
To make a healthy choice and to understand why one is healthy and the other is not, it is good to know how oatmeal is produced. Because ‘oatmeal’ comes from the cereal ‘oats’. Oatmeal is the germinated (shell removes) version of oats and if only the shell is removed you speak of ‘long-boiling’ or ‘whole grain’ oatmeal. You don’t usually find this type of oatmeal at the supermarket, but at a health food store.

In addition, you also have the cut oatmeal, which is broken or cut into two parts. The advantage of this is that the cooking time is drastically reduced from 15 minutes to 5 minutes. In both this version and the ‘whole’ version, most nutrients and dietary fiber have been preserved. They are healthy for both of these oatmeal varieties.

The latest version is the rolled oatmeal. And how could it be otherwise … you can usually find it in the supermarket. The rolled oats are flat and sometimes this oats are sweetened and processed. You often see this when the oatmeal is already mixed with other ingredients. Therefore, with this form you only benefit for a small part from the beneficial efficacy of these grains. In fact, this variant causes peaks in blood sugar levels which you naturally prefer not to have (more about those peaks later).

So … is oatmeal healthy?
The answer to that question depends on the preparation and the type of oatmeal you choose. If you eat ready-made oatmeal that is sweetened with sugar, it is by definition not healthy. Usually, the ready-made oatmeal contains only half of the original fiber contained in oats and a lot of junk is added to make it ‘tasty’. In some ready-made oatmeal there is even more than 10% pure sugar. So when you ask “is ready-made oatmeal healthy?” the answer is “No!”.

But fortunately there is also good news! Pure oatmeal is healthy. By ‘pure’ I mean unprocessed oatmeal or at most ‘cut’. You recognize the whole grain oatmeal by the full, round structure and it is packed with valuable food for your body. The taste of whole-grain oatmeal has a slightly more ‘nutty’ taste than processed oatmeal.

Also advantageous for people with a gluten allergy is that oats naturally do not contain gluten. However, the oats are often treated in an environment where products are processed with gluten, so if it cannot contain any traces of gluten, you should also look for real gluten-free varieties.

The big disadvantage of whole grain oatmeal is that you have to boil it for about 15 minutes to make it soft and edible. On the other hand, you get a lot in return and it also tastes better. I will list the benefits of oatmeal for you.

The benefits of oatmeal
Reduces LDL Cholesterol by 7%
Reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease
It helps your body to regulate your sugar levels
Whole grain oatmeal contains many dietary fiber
You will be full longer (that’s why an oatmeal breakfast is so popular)
It is full of vitamins and minerals
Oatmeal also contains many antioxidants
It is also a source of protein
It naturally contains no gluten
The difference between wholegrain oatmeal and ready-made oatmeal is particularly reflected in the ‘GI index’. Without becoming too technical … The GI index indicates what nutrition does to your blood sugar. The higher the GI index is, the less healthy it is for our bodies. We speak of a high glycemic index above 70 and a low below 55. Ready-made oatmeal has a GI index of 83, while whole-grain oatmeal has a GI index of 55. See how much difference it makes ?

Oatmeal for breakfast
As you can read above, an oatmeal breakfast can be a fantastic addition to your diet. In particular, the dietary fiber and the proteins ensure that you are full for longer than when, for example, you eat bread or a cracker.

An oatmeal breakfast is usually combined with milk or yogurt, but can also be combined with water or, for example, almond milk.

A whole-grain oatmeal breakfast is therefore healthy and even recommended if you want to lose weight. Losing weight with oatmeal is something you often encounter on the internet. You can of course come up with (and find) very exciting explanations, but basically it simply means that you have less appetite and therefore eat less. The amount of dietary fiber also plays an important role.

Prepare oatmeal:
Oatmeal is fairly easy to prepare. May I assume that you are convinced by my article and choose the whole-grain oatmeal? 🙂Beautiful! A basic oatmeal is easy to prepare. You can boil it with water, milk or something like almond milk.

Bring the liquid to the boil and add the oatmeal. Let it boil for 15 minutes and remove it from the heat. Let it cool down and you’re done. Now we can add some things for the taste, as I show below with the recipes.

What is also recommended is to bring water to the boil and let the oatmeal boil for 1 to 2 minutes. Then turn off the heat and leave the oatmeal covered for a night. The next morning you will have wonderfully soft oatmeal!

Oatmeal recipe 1:
Breakfast for 1 or 2 people:

100ml water
100ml almond milk (or whole milk)
50 grams whole wheat oatmeal
1 large banana (crushed)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 pinch of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Oatmeal recipe 2:
100ml water
100ml almond milk (or whole milk)
50 grams whole wheat oatmeal
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Oatmeal topping:

Hand of blueberries
A few raspberries

Oatmeal recipe 3
Oatmeal cakeOatmeal cake
For a variation on the oatmeal breakfast, I also have a recipe for an oatmeal cake . Easy to take to work as a lunch or snack.

There are dozens of recipes on the internet to make a delicious oatmeal breakfast. And also nice books all about oatmeal. That is also one of the benefits. You can vary endlessly with ingredients and put something new on the table every morning.

The conclusion
If you choose the right type of oatmeal, oatmeal can be healthy for you and boost your health. I can therefore recommend an oatmeal breakfast to anyone who wants to have a healthy breakfast or to lose weight. Because some people jump directly to the conclusion, I would like to emphasize that the ‘supermarket’ oatmeal is not always healthy! Go to a health food store for ‘whole’ or ‘half’ oatmeal.

Do you also want to eat a little healthier?
Would you also like to eat a little healthier, preferably without fast sugars / carbohydrates but you don’t know what? Sign up now for the VIP Club of Gezondblog. You can read more about it here.

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Easy Recipes Healthy Recipes Vegan Vegetarian Video

Are vitamins lost during cooking?

Our body needs vitamins for a healthy metabolism. Vitamins ensure, among other things, that our resistance is maintained. Many people get a flu during this period, so it is important to get enough vitamins from your food. Unfortunately, there are a number of vitamins that are very sensitive to heating, which means that many vitamins are lost during cooking. That is why it is important to know how you can cook in a different way so that the vitamins are retained!

All vitamins at a glance

There are 13 types of vitamins:

Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Vitamin K
Vitamin B1
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B3
Vitamin B5
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B8
Vitamin B11 (folic acid)
Vitamin B12
All these vitamins have their own effect. For example, vitamin A is important for the skin and vitamin C is important for the immune system. We need these vitamins every day, one more than the other. To get enough vitamins, it is important to eat healthy and varied food.

The preparation, what goes wrong here?

Everyone has their own way of cooking. The preparation will therefore also be different for everyone. Vitamins can be lost during the preparation of a meal. If you look critically at how you prepare your food, you can adjust certain ways that you save vitamins!

Wash your vegetables briefly. Soaking your vegetables for a long time is a real no-go!
Did you know that vitamins are already being lost while vegetables are being cut? Therefore, do not buy pre-sliced vegetables, because you never know how they prepared the vegetables. Cut your vegetables yourself and preferably as short as possible before cooking.
Prefer not to peel vegetables. It is often customary to peel a zucchini, for example, but the skin is full of vitamins!
Place the vegetables in boiling water instead of cold water. If you let cold water heat up in a pan with vegetables, more vitamins will be lost.
Cook with the lid on the pan. There are many vitamins in the cooking fluid! Therefore, also use your cooking fluid as the basis for a sauce, for example.
5 tips to preserve vitamins during cooking
Many vitamins are also lost during cooking, while you naturally want to keep every vitamin !

# 1 Eat fresh

Fresh vegetables contain the most vitamins. That is because it has not been processed much and is therefore still in the store in a short time. Always store fresh vegetables in a dark and dry place.

# 2 Poach

If you poach vegetables, the cooking temperature stays below 100 degrees. This means that the taste is better preserved and the vitamins are still in your vegetables!

# 3 Cook at a higher temperature

By cooking at a higher temperature with a shorter baking time you limit the loss of vitamins even more!

# 4 Wok

Wok is very easy and fast. You can put everything in the wok and bake everything briefly. Meat sears quickly so that all juices and vitamins remain in the meat. The vegetables are quickly cooked without losing the vitamins.

# 5 Use as

little water as possible By using little water, you lose fewer vitamins. Is it customary for you to add salt during cooking? Do not! Salt extracts all vitamins from your vegetables. That’s how they disappear in the water. Therefore, add a little salt only when you start serving the dish.

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Breakfast Fruit Healthy Low Carb Recipes Smoothie Vegetarian Video

Pre-cut vegetables or cut yourself?

If you know my recipes then you know that I am someone of quick and easy.
Spending hours in the kitchen is really not my thing, I prefer to cook with as few pans and actions as possible.
That is also one of the reasons that I often opted for pre-cut vegetables. The vegetable mix bags are usually well varied and it saves me a lot of cutting.

Now I have to say that that was not the only reason. I also often have a fight with good kitchen tools. From home I am quite a bit economical and spend a lot of money on knives, for example. The knives in my kitchen drawer have been around for years and I don’t notice that they are becoming more and more blunt.

It is even so that (so far) I do not cut chicken fillet with a knife but with a (specially purchased) scissors into pieces. Because with a knife I always thought it was such a hassle.

Hubby always finds this type of frugality very irritating because he wants good things for the kitchen. Incidentally, not only for the kitchen, this applies to everything in its existence, but that is another story. Now his prayers were answered recently because Cookinglife asked me if I would like to review the Arcos knives.

Arcos knife reviewArcos knife review
A whole new world opens up for me! What a difference between my 20-year-old meat cleaver and the new one from Arcos! I now glide through the meat and don’t have to put any pressure on it at all. Perhaps quite normal for other people but I am enjoying my kitchen! Also the tomatoes (which I used to cut with a serrated knife for the stiff skin) I can now simply cut into cubes.

On the photo you can see the Arcos  knife  that I used to cut all vegetables.

Yesterday a pasta dish made with a lot of vegetables. I now also had to take good care of my carving because with such a sharp knife an accident is also in a small corner. Mindful cutting say🙂

Because the cutting work is no longer in my way, I want to highlight the benefits of cutting your vegetables yourself instead of pre-cut vegetables.

First the price!

Take a look at a bag of pre-cut vegetables and weigh the same items separately. You will see that you get much more vegetables for your hard-earned money if you cut it yourself.

Secondly the freshness!

Fruit and vegetables are nowadays packaged so well that with the new techniques you can no longer see how fresh it is. The vegetable can sometimes be 6 days old without you noticing it. Taking into account that the nutrients are lost as soon as you cut and reduce per hour, this is certainly something you can take into consideration.

Thirdly your own choice!

Okay, the bags are well varied, but my experience is that they often contain stuffing, for example a lot of cabbage which is nice and cheap and not a lot of bell pepper. If you choose yourself, then of course take the vegetables that you like best, that look nice and fresh and of which you can, if you have something left, possibly keep something uncut.

Three reasons for me to use fewer pre-cut vegetables and to cut everything nice and fresh.

And now the recipe for enthusiasts:

Pasta with vegetables and tuna

 

Ingredients:

3 cloves of garlic
1 onionpre-cut vegetables
1 (point) bell pepper
1 zucchini
5 tomatoes
handful of fresh basil
2 cans of tuna
250 grams of spelled pasta
2 tablespoons capers
200 ml (vegetable) cream
grated (goat) cheese
freshly ground pepper
olive oil

Squeeze the garlic and cut the vegetables into small pieces.
Cook the pasta according to the instructions, drain and sprinkle with some olive oil.
Stir fry all vegetables in the order of the ingredients list.
Add the tuna, capers and cream and heat well together.
Mix the vegetables with the pasta and season with a lot of pepper and some olive oil.
Serve the pasta with some grated goat cheese.

Categories
Breakfast Fruit Low Carb Recipes Smoothie Vegetarian

Why Brazil nuts are good for your health

The Brazil nut is a real superfood. You often find the nut in nut mixes, but you can also buy them separately. Brazil nuts are often underestimated, but are very healthy and bring many health benefits!

Where does the Brazil nut come from?
The Brazil nut grows on a tree called Bertholletia excelsa. The tree is mainly found in tropical rain forests and mainly along the banks of the Amazon. The tree needs a lot of water, because it can grow up to 50 meters high and the trunk up to 2 meters thick! It takes 10 to 25 years for fruit to reach the tree.

Once that has happened, the fruits must mature for another 14 months. Every year 40 fruits grow on the tree. The fruit has the shape of a cone and weighs approximately 2 kilos. A fruit can easily contain 20 seeds, we know these seeds as Brazil nuts. There are even Brazil nut trees that are more than 500 years old.

The benefits at a glance
The Brazil nut contains many minerals such as magnesium, potassium, iron, calcium and zinc.
Brazil nuts also contain important antioxidants: proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
The oil from the nut is good for your skin, which is why the oil is now used in shampoo and conditioner.
Rich in vitamins B1, B6 and vitamin E.
The nut contains the important amino acids methionine, cysteine, arginine, glutamic acid and glutamine.
Menopausal women often have selenium deficiency and this has an effect on the thyroid gland. Fortunately the Brazil nut is rich in selenium!
The nut contains fatty acids such as oleic, linoleic and palmitoleic acids that promote the health of people with cardiovascular disease.
The Brazil nut is a good substitute for oily fish , because the nut contains many healthy fats.
Rich in selenium
Brazil nuts is more than rich in selenium. 100 grams of Brazil nuts is already 3500% of the recommended daily allowance! Selenium has many advantages:

Releases energy in cells.
limits the damage of the muscles during exercise.
Selenium is good for your immune system.
Selenium works twice as strong in combination with vitamin E.
Provides strong bones and teeth.
Has the property that it has a positive effect on fighting cancer.
Brazil nuts healthyHow much per day?
100 grams of Brazil nuts is already 3500% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA). If you eat two Brazil nuts a day , this is enough to maintain your selenium and to benefit from the health effects. If you eat too many Brazil nuts in a short period, it is possible to get selenium poisoning. The symptoms are stomach pain, fatigue, itching, skin rash and white and / or brittle nails.

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Fruit Healthy Vegetarian

‘Tomatoes improve sperm quality’

Tomatoes have a positive effect on the quality of sperm. According to research published by the Cleveland Clinic. According to American researchers, the substance causes lycopene, the substance that causes a tomato to be red, that the amount of sperm increases by about seventy percent. The quality of the sperm also increases.

For the research, the scientists studied the data from twelve different studies around the world. All these studies showed that lycopene ensures that the number of sperm cells present increases and that the seed starts to swim a lot faster. According to the research leader, Ashok Agarwal, the studies clearly demonstrated the positive effect of lycopeem on sperm.

Follow-up investigation
Previous studies have also shown that lycopene reduces the risk of prostate disease. The research team immediately started follow-up research and will, among other things, study the effect of taking lycopene supplements in men who are inexplicably infertile. The results of that investigation are expected next year.

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Fruit Healthy Low Carb Recipes Vegetarian Video

Sushi bowl with marinated mushrooms

 

Greenco marinated mushroomsGreenco marinated mushrooms
The Greenco brand comes with various varieties of marinated mushrooms! I already received a package from them with three different types to make a recipe with, one of the benefits of blogging😉

The package really had to come from Korea so I had to be patient but after 2 weeks I had the pots at home, 2 marinated, 1 of which in olive oil and 1 pickled (inlaid).

Because I love sushi and wanted to make a vegetarian sushi bowl, I recorded a video with it.

Ingredients sushi bowl:

250 gr sushi rice Supplies sushi bowlGreenco marinated mushrooms
1 mango
1 avocado
1 cucumber
pot (280 gr) marinated mushrooms in oil
2 spring onions
2 tbsp sesame seeds, lightly roasted
Dressing:

2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
juice of half a lime
Optional:

nori leaves or chips
Preparation method:

Cook the sushi rice according to the instructions on the package and let it cool.
Peel the cucumber and cut it into long strings with a peeler or cheese slicer.
Peel the mango and cut it into long, narrow segments.
Cut the spring onions into small rings.
Mix the ingredients for the dressing.
Drain the mushrooms.
Finally, peel the avocado and cut it into long, narrow segments.
Arrange all ingredients nicely in a large bowl and divide the dressing, sesame seeds and the optional nori chips.

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Breakfast Fruit Healthy Low Carb Recipes Smoothie Vegetarian

Grapefruit, why it helps with losing weight!

The grapefruit and lose weight

grapefruit lose weightGrapefruit with sugar, just like in the old days …
Not everyone is a fan of grapefruits, the taste is a combination of bitter and sour and you really have to love that. I remember that in the past we dipped the grapefruit in granulated sugar …

The fruit is a cross between an orange and a grapefruit. Did you know that a grapefruit contains no less than half the daily amount of vitamin C, also a good reason to add the grapefruit to your diet.

Naringenin, an important substance!
The bitter taste of the fruit is caused by the substance Naringenin. The substance belongs to the group Phytonutrients. In addition to the bitter taste, the substance has an even more important function, namely the stimulation of fat burning. Naringenin reacts to fat molecules that will burn faster due to the substance. Your metabolism also speeds up, this causes your body to burn the fat instead of storing it as an energy reserve. That is one of the reasons that grapefruits also help with weight loss.

Benefits of grapefruit

A grapefruit has many advantages, including:

Contains few calories
A grapefruit contains less than 100 calories and is therefore one of the fruits with the least calories! In addition, it also contains a lot of vitamins C and A. These vitamins

ensure that your immune system becomes stronger. Vitamin C combats bacteria and harmful substances and vitamin A ensures that you do not contract infections and inflammations.

Contains many antioxidants

Lycopene can lower the risk of various cancers.

Your blood sugar levels remain balanced
By eating grapefruit regularly you prevent the cells in your body from becoming less sensitive due to insulin. Insulin controls many processes in your body including your blood sugar level. If your cells become less sensitive to insulin, your blood sugar level rises. That is not a healthy consequence and it can even lead to type 2 diabetes.

Smaller chance of kidney stones
Your kidneys filter all waste in your body. It can sometimes happen that the waste forms stones. The citric acid in grapefruits reduces the chance of this happening.

Good for your heart
The grapefruit contains an important mineral for your heart, namely potassium. This mineral ensures that your heart stays healthy. It prevents that you get too high blood pressure or too high cholesterol.

Recipes with Grapefruit
grapefruit lose weightGrapefruit as the start of the day
Now that you know how good grapefruits are for you, you may want to know how to prepare them. I prefer to eat a (red) grapefruit on my sober stomach, sit comfortably and chew up. But if that is too intense for you, I have a few ideas for you here.

Recipe # 1: Smoothie

Ingredients:
100 ml organic carrot juice (or freshly squeezed in a juicer)
1 grapefruit
1 cm ginger
A fruit piece of your choice, for example: a banana, an apple, 100 grams of blueberries

Necessities:
Blender
Cutting
board Cutting knife
Grater

Preparation method:
Peel the grapefruit and cut into pieces.
Peel the ginger and grate the piece above the blender.
Cut the extra piece of fruit into pieces if necessary.
Put all the ingredients in the blender and make sure everything is blended well.
Dilute it with some extra juice or water.
grapefruit lose weightFresh grapefruit drink

Recipe # 2: As a fresh juice

 

Ingredients for 4 glasses (or a large can)

1 grapefruit
1 hand of mint
1 lemon and / or lime
(Source) water and ice cubes

Preparation method:

Scrub the outside of the (preferably organic) citrus fruit well.
Cut them in half and divide them over the glasses or in a nice water jug.
Add the coin and top up with water.
Recipe # 3: Salad

Ingredients for 4 portions:

200 grams mixed salad
2 grapefruits
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 ripe avocado
1 teaspoon honey
A handful of walnuts
Pepper and salt

Necessities:

Bowl where the lettuce can go
Bowl for the grapefruit juice
Cutting
board Cutting knife

Preparation method:

Clean the lettuce with water and drain. Once it is almost dry, put the lettuce in a bowl.
Peel the grapefruit over a small bowl. This way you catch all the delicious juice that is released. The juice is in fact the basis for your dressing. Separate the segments and add them to lettuce.
Peel the avocado and cut the avocado into thin slices and add it to the lettuce. You can also cut the slices in half if you prefer.
For the dressing: Combine the collected grapefruit juice with the honey and olive oil. Season the dressing with salt and pepper.
Mix the dressing with the salad.
Sprinkle the lettuce with a handful of walnuts.

Categories
Breakfast Fruit Healthy Low Carb Recipes Vegetarian Video

Nut paste versus peanut butter

There is probably no peanut butter in your kitchen cupboard either. Peanut butter is integrated in the fixed spreads so that it is almost unthinkable that someone does not like it. If you have never been to a health food store, then you may not be aware that there are many more types of nut pastes that are very tasty but also very healthy.

Think cashew nut paste , almond paste and mixed types of nut paste , which are now gaining popularity. Not least because they are super healthy. These pastas are all made from pure nuts as opposed to peanut butter, which only consists of peanuts. And peanuts are not covered by the healthy nuts, they are legumes. Another reason why people who follow a Paleo diet do not eat peanut butter, but they do eat nut pastes.

I personally love nut pastes! Delicious in taste, filling and also good for me. The price of a pure nut paste is often higher than that of peanut butter, but it tastes so much purer and healthier that it is worth it to me.
I like to eat it on a spelled cracker or rice cake, preferably with some banana slices, but a snack of pasta on a piece of apple or with a large date is also very tasty.

Nut paste versus peanut butterNut paste with…
For the peanut butter fans I have compared the ingredients of peanut butter and almond paste.

Almond paste is slightly healthier than peanut butter because it contains more vitamins, minerals and fiber. Almond paste is therefore a precursor if you look at the vitamin and mineral content. It contains almost three times as much vitamin E, twice as much iron and seven times as much calcium as peanut butter. Peanut butter also contains vitamins and minerals including vitamin E, calcium and iron, but it does not contain as much as almond butter. Both peanut butter and almond butter contain a healthy dose of potassium, biotin, magnesium and zinc.

Peanut butter and nut paste also contain fibers that give you a full feeling faster, allowing you to maintain a healthy weight. It also helps to lower your cholesterol. Fortunately, all nuts contain fiber. When it comes to fiber content, almond paste comes out better when compared to peanut butter. Two tablespoons of almond paste contains approximately 3.3 grams of fiber, while 2 tablespoons of peanut butter only contains 1.6 grams.

Almond paste contains much less carbohydrates than peanut butter (nuts = proteins, legumes = carbohydrates)

In addition, it is also super healthy to consume nuts or nut pastes. Research studies have shown time and again that people who regularly include nuts or nut pastes in their diet are less likely to have heart disease or type 2 diabetes than people who do not regularly eat nuts. Research also suggests that regular consumption of nuts does not contribute to obesity, despite the fact that nuts are high in calories.

On a strictly nutritional basis, almond paste is healthier than peanut butter, but only slightly. But if you look at the benefits of eating nuts compared to peanuts, a nut paste is definitely a better choice.

If you prefer the taste of peanut butter, choose an organic version. Many ordinary brands of peanut butter are full of junk! Unfortunately, some brands mix their peanut butter with sugar, fructose-corn syrup, salt and hydrogenated vegetable oils. And beware of the low-fat peanut butter that are often the worst.

Do not forget the nuts pasta not properly read the label and choose one that contains no added sugar, partially hydrogenated oils or trans fats or artificial ingredients. The label must contain only one ingredient: “nuts” or “almonds” (and maybe a pinch of salt).

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Healthy Vegetarian

How protein shakes help me lose weight

For a while I have been using proteins to lose weight. Inspired by the book by Timothy Ferriss, I went looking for scientific studies that found that a low-carb, but high-protein and fat-rich diet was healthier and produced better results. Losing weight with proteins is HOT! The scientific evidence appears to be in large quantities and the results do not lie. At the bottom of the article I have listed the 3 most important studies that show that weight loss works with proteins. The light was therefore green and I started the diet (or actually diet) of Timothy Ferriss.

Quite soon after I started the Timothy Ferriss diet ( body a body book ), I started protein shakes. The Timoty Ferriss diet is based on protein intake and low carbohydrate eating. But to make a good start, it is important to start your day with a breakfast free of carbohydrates and an intake of at least 20 grams of protein.

The first week I started in the morning with 3 eggs with a little Zaanse mayonnaise, 4 slices of bacon and two large glasses of water. But after two weeks the eggs came out of my throat. You still have to do quite a bit to get those 20 grams of protein. And it is almost the basis if you want to lose weight with proteins. That is why I started looking for an alternative to the eggs. So you can start with 200 grams of chicken fillet, a generous salmon steak … but yes … who wants to get up early in the morning?

The outcome: Protein shakes
A turbulent diet period began … 🙂Protein shakes soon seemed the solution, but the road to the perfect shake was a long one. I tried maybe 10 different varieties … one even dirtier than the other! Some had
a very bad taste, others just couldn’t be plum and others didn’t really have a good impact on my diet.

I ended up with  these protein shakes because of the natural ingredients. The taste is great and there are few carbohydrates in it (which is very important!). I take about 1 scoop every morning and mix it with 250ml almond milk. My experience is that if you start your day with this, you will last at least 4-5 hours … without getting hungry. Eat some more fat (a handful of almonds for example) and the 4-5 hours after breakfast your body is burning fat. I lost more than 10 kilos with this!

Why proteins help in burning fat
Proteins prevent large fluctuations in your glycemic index. A low glycemic index means that the diet contains carbohydrates that are absorbed slowly by the body. This gives you a feeling of satiety for longer during the day. As a result, you do not feel hungry all day long and saying no to delicacies becomes much easier. [ 1 ] This forms the basis for weight loss with proteins. Of course there are more factors that play a role, but this is the most important.

You also need proteins to build and restore your muscles. And this is really not only important if you want to body build! Every effort you make causes small cracks in your muscles. Your body repairs those cracks with the help of proteins. If you do not get enough protein, your body will not repair those cracks at all or not enough … and then you break down muscles. People who exercise lightly also benefit from it. Mix the proteins with water and not with milk.

Why losing weight with proteins has no yo-yo effect
The reason why many diets cause a so-called ‘yo-yo effect’ is that many of those diets are used for calorie restriction. And calorie restriction leads to a number of reactions in your body, of which these two reactions provide the yo-yo effect:

Your body does not get enough energy to keep your body running properly. From ancient times it is genetically determined that our body will use less energy (and therefore calories) to survive. Your body goes into a kind of ‘fuel-efficient mode’. As a result, your body starts to prepare for difficult times … and it does so by building up fat reserves. So as soon as you stop your low-calorie diet, your body starts storing like crazy.
In addition, because your body doesn’t get enough energy, your body starts looking for natural energy sources in your body. A source that can always provide the body with energy are the proteins. And your body gets it from, among other things, your muscles. Your body will therefore break down muscles to get energy. And your muscles use a lot of energy, which means that you will use even fewer calories at rest. In addition, less muscle mass ensures less burn. If you are going to lose weight with proteins, you do not have that problem.
And so after your diet it seems as if every pound goes through your mouth, directly clinging to your hips and stomach … and actually that is true. Although with the best of intentions, because your body wants to prevent it from having to draw energy from muscles the next time.

Do I have to eat completely low in carbohydrates?
You don’t have to! I have benefited a lot from it myself and feel better since I did it, but…. it is not necessary. You can lose weight with protein shakes by just doing your breakfast low in carbohydrate with a protein shake and some fat, then you will get through the day whistling. No hunger, no muscle breakdown and more resistant to impulsive binge eating. Of course, the effect is 10 x greater if you eat completely low in carbohydrates. In fact … that is easier to maintain. But starting with baby scoops is better than not starting😉

Some small tips
This protein shake works best for me and I think the tastiest tastes (with free shake cup)
The book by Timothy Ferriss is highly recommended
For me, losing weight was a little faster when I started taking  these caffeine tablets  (don’t you bounce;))
Studies that endorse my experience
Effects of a low-carbohydrate diet on weight loss and cardiovascular risk factor in overweight adolescents
A Randomized Trial Comparing a Very Low Carbohydrate Diet and a Calorie-Restricted Low Fat Diet on Body Weight and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Healthy Women
Comparison of energy-restricted very low-carbohydrate and low-fat diet on weight loss and body composition in overweight men and women

Low carbohydrate food
On this blog we write a lot about low carbohydrate eating and low carbohydrate diets. Read more about the low- carbohydrate diet.