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Thursday, August 22, 2013

Spinach for Breakfast?

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I realize that very few (if any?) of you are on the restricted diet I'm on right now. First of all, I'm a vegan (as a reminder, that means I don't eat meat, chicken, fish, dairy or eggs). Secondly, I'm diabetic, so I don't eat any sugar (including agave nectar) or white flour products. Thirdly, my body is sensitive to wheat and rice. Fourthly, I recently developed an allergy to strawberries, one of my top 5 favorite fruits. Fifthly, right now, I am in the middle of six weeks without any grain (well, I am eating breads made out of whole rye with a bit of spelt, but not every day -- I'll explain why later one).

So, in any case, I have also been working on adding more dark green leafies to my diet. I have been making baby spinach and/or baby kale based salads and adding spinach and kale to my sauteed veggies. The biggest issue with eating leafy greens is keeping enough in the house (there isn't a lot of room in the refrigerators in our house, so I often have to buy more 2-3 times a week).

I have been working on my breakfast for a while. Firstly, I heard that I should eat more protein for breakfast (like 25-30 or more grams of protein for breakfast). Enter Mung Bean Fettucine -- a serving has 20 - 25 grams of protein. I've been eating the Mung Bean Noodles for breakfast for a while. But I want to get some leafy greens in.

This is what I ended up with as my breakfast goes like this: I take my blender (smoothie machine), add 1 cup almond "milk", I add a couple of handfuls of spinach and/or kale, 2 Tablespoons of nut "flour" (meal) -- I've used both almond and hazelnut, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon ginger. I sometimes add a handful of raw cashews and I try to put in 1/8 teaspoon of pink (himalayan mountain) salt (I need the extra sodium). I whirr it all together and pour it into a pot. I start heating it up and then I add 1/4 bag of the Mung Bean Fettucine. I cook it until the noodles are soft, then I cover the pot and let it sit a few minutes.

When I put it in the bowl, I add 2-4 Tablespoons chia seed (or hemp seed). This adds another 6-12 grams of protein in addition to the omega-3 fatty acids it contains. I also put in 1/8-1/4 of a teaspoon stevia (find the amount of your favorite sweetener) and, if it's not too liquidy, I add some more almond "milk". I love this and it's healthy and nutritious.

As for the Rye, there was a study I read about in Dr Mark Hyman's book, The Blood Sugar Solution , that a study was done on male diabetics where they either ate all their carbohydrates from rye or they ate all their carbohydrates from wheat, oats and potatoes. The former group did much better, blood sugar wise, over the course of the study than the latter group. I found an on-line version of this study -- Rye vs Wheat, Oats, and Potatoes: How Different Carbohydrate Types Affect Your Body