It's still considered new year before we head for February. But I know that most people are starting to eat healthier these days as part of their new year's resolution. So, some people are doing a cleanse or a juice fast, while others are starting to count how many calories they are taking in a day or even a meal. People have different perspective about what healthy food is. Some food may be healthy for other people, some are not. Sometimes a high calorie ingredient may be perceived as something unhealthy. And these days, we are bombarded with lots of information about health, diet and nutrition and that even makes our life even more confusing and complicated.
The other day, my friend asked me if there's a calorie count for the pack of granola I gave her. I told her I would calculate it first and tell her when I have the answers already. Well, I don't really count calories. I hate doing that. And I don't have a software where you type all the ingredients and viola you have your calories for 450 grams of granola. But I tried. And I found out that different websites would give different calorie count. I believe you are aware that nuts and seeds are high in fats and calories. One gram of fat has 9 calories. And if you ask me how many calories would there be in just 100 grams of walnuts, there are approximately 654 calories and that's excluding the almonds, sesame and sunflower seeds. And don't forget the oil, the sweeteners and dried fruits. And for the 450 grams of granola that I have, there's 50 grams of walnuts with 327 calories. Are you still with me?
The numbers may be alarming for many people but I've decided to make my life simpler by not looking at the calories but to look at the ingredient list and the quality instead. One thing you can ask yourself is, is this food real or is there actually food in my food that I'm eating?
I made this granola as nourishing and nutritious as much as possible meaning that I've used real and whole ingredients that people can pronounce and recognize as opposed to ingredients that has been altered that your body cannot metabolize properly and even damage your cells.
And if you're wondering how many calories are there in the homemade granola I made. There's approximately (not exactly) 518 calories per 100 grams of granola but that includes the carbohydrates, proteins, fats and fiber plus other essential nutrients that your body needs. That may be a huge amount for one serving but if you were to compare it with a donut, there's 200 calories per piece with no nutrient value. Which do you think your body will metabolize the calories more efficiently?
Photo courtesy of Rouxbe Online Cooking School
Starting tomorrow, I will be taking a Plant Based Professional Certification Course from Rouxbe Online Cooking School. I'm mentioned about plant-based foods in my nutrition class before. But the idea here is not to convert every single student to become a vegan or a vegetarian. In fact, I actually shy away from those two words because my reason for introducing plant-based in my class is to expand their food and cooking repertoire that also caters to people wants to get more plant-based foods into their diet. This would be a challenge for me ingredient-wise since I always see the same produce over and over again. I miss my inspiration back in Vancouver where produce are abundant in variety at the public or farmers's market. And to shift to mostly plant-based foods would also be a test to the people I will cook for. Nevertheless, I am here to become one of the plant-based educators to take the world by storm.
