Which is best to have along with breakfast a whole fruit or juice out of it?

Whole Fruit Vs Its Juice

In our fast food life, many choose juice to be their choice. We think juice is concentrate form of fruit. Are we thinking right?

Convenience & Ease of use

Though people feel juice is an easier option, as it doesn’t require any washing, peeling or slicing it is NOT. Fruit is ultimate convenient whole some food. Packed juice has more shelf life as it treated with preservatives, But fruits are natural and fresh, cannot stay for longer duration.

Juice is simple carbohydrate and it gets digested faster and kindles hungry soon, but a whole fruit has fibre and digests slowly and keep you satiety for longer duration.

Nutrients & Fibre

Juice concentrate or 100% fruit juice, though tasty and refreshing, is not as healthy as whole fruit. When a whole fruit is pressed or squeezed to make juice, some of the nutrients, most notably fiber and the water-soluble vitamins, are lost in the process. More sugar without fibre is unhealthy. So we consume a fruit or a piece of fruit, we intake nutrients, fibre and sugar.

More over fullness will not come with a glass of juice but a fruit gives that. Juice is simple carbohydrate and it gets digested faster and kindles hungry soon, but a whole fruit has fibre and digests slowly and keep you satiety for longer duration. Fruit is one of the best dietary sources of fiber, which is important not only for helping with weight loss by helping you feel full, but also for heart and digestive health

Sugar & Calories

Juices, contain more calories, doubled than normal. Especially the products tagged as "Contains X fruits in one litre" has lot of calories, which is not really recommended. Whereas fruits are whole food, It has both nutrients and fibre along with naturally occurring sugar.

Risk

During the juicing process, not only the nutrients and fibre are destroyed, many antioxidants and natural properties of the fruit are also getting destroyed.

During the juicing process, not only the nutrients and fibre are destroyed, many antioxidants and natural properties of the fruit are also getting destroyed. Mere purpose of that fruit is lost and we extract and intake the sugars purposely. Experts from the UK, Singapore and a team from Harvard School of Public Health in the US have found in a study, eating some of the fruits lowers the risk of type 2 Diabetes and consuming the same fruits in the form of juice actually increases it.

Conclusion

Consuming the fruit as it is, considered to be best way to get the full benefit of fruit from health point of view. However, rather consuming the fresh fruit juice is more far better than consuming the artificial juices and concentrates made of real fruit (even with pulp) which is readily available.

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Multi Grain Porridge - Nutrients & Benefits

Why should I have Multi Grain Porridge ? How it Helps? What are the Benefits?

Fullness or Satiety

Grain based food have a high amount of dietary fiber. Fibre substance helps to fill you up, which prevents you from overeating. It helps to maintain or even lose weight. Fiber also helps to maintain blood-sugar levels and reduces the risk for high cholesterol. A cup of cooked porridge contains about 4 grams to 6 grams of fiber. Consuming porridge everyday twice is good for men and once is ideal for women . Adding berries, seeds and nuts to the porridge increases its fiber content.

Energy

Multigrain Porridge contains a high amount of complex carbohydrates, unlike simple carbohydrates which gets digested slowly and gives you sustained energy. One cup of porridge contains just over 15 grams of carbohydrates. Adding fruit, honey, brown sugar or milk to your porridge will boost the carbohydrates content of your meal and increase the calories. Milk also contains a moderate amount of protein. Carbohydrates are required for body because they are macro nutrients needed for optimal brain function and energy.

Oxygen Supply

Grains has a generous amount of Iron, which is used for the production of myoglobin and hemoglobin. They join with red blood cells to carry oxygen to the muscles and all other areas of the body. Iron is required very well for Men and women. Consuming it in natural way in the form of porridge adds value.

Strengthen Bones and Muscles

Porridge has calcium and high content of phosphorus. Phosphorus, which is stored in the bones, helps with energy production, filtering of waste through the kidneys and muscle recovery after intense exercise. Making porridge with milk and adding seeds and nuts will create a high-phosphorus content in your meal. Calcium is similar to phosphorus in that it helps strengthen teeth and bones. It also plays a role in hormone secretion, nerve transmission and muscle function. By preparing your gruel with milk, you will boost the calcium content of the meal.

Acts as Immunity Builder

Porridge contains Vitamin A. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that the body needs for vision, cell and tissue growth and reproduction. It is also an antioxidant, which helps destroy free radicals and reduce the risk for chronic disease.

Consuming porridge is healthy practice which is more traditional and including it has a breakfast replacement makes a day more healthy and energetic. Intake of porridge will be a easy way to maintain our daily values.

Added, a brisk walk in the morning help to get the vitamin D with the help of sunlight.

Note: Minimum 15 grams or 3 spoons of powder makes a glass of porridge. Milk will be ideal for children and youngsters and buttermilk will be best suit for elders and diabetics.

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How to make simple Multigrain Atta using porridge powder?

We get variety of multi grain atta in the market, majority of atta are combination 93 to 97 percent of wheat and 7 to 4 perent of multi grain which again a combination of 3 to 5 grains.

We can prepare multi grain atta using Tasty Cereal Mix in a very simple way. Take 5 portions of wheat flour and 1 portion of Tasty Cereal Mix, mix throughly and use it as normal atta for preparation of roti. This is now a combination of 16 grains incuding wheat.

Simple and nutritious food.

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What is the best breakfast to start the day, Cereal flakes or a Porridge?

Ready made cereals Vs Multigrain Porridge

Our Daily food routine begins with a breakfast. There are variety of western choices say, a bowl of cereals, a slice of toast, cup of museli and traditional foods like Idly, Dosa, Pongal along with a cup of milk, coffee or juice as breakfast. At the same time skipping breakfast is not a good idea. If we skip breakfast, we feel hungrier later in the day and ate more food at night, this may lead to metabolic changes and heart disease, also to gastro issues.

Which is a Healthy breakfast?

Before we start the comparison, let us understand what nutrients are really required for breakfast?
The qualifying nutrients are protein, fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium, iron, potassium and magnesium. The disqualifying nutrients are saturated fat, added sugar and sodium.

Ready made cereals/museli

Processed cereals or toast contain high levels of simple carbohydrates, which in turn converted rapidly into glucose. Museli, a combination of rolled oats and dry fruits contains high amount of concentrated sugar due to dry fruits.

These simple carbohydrates produces a short energy boost followed by an energy slump and ends in sugar craving. If you eat this type of breakfast, you will probably start to feel hungry very soon.

To eat too many carbohydrates for breakfast without enough fibre or protein is not a balance diet.

Lot of people suffer from low blood sugar levels by mid-morning. Simply because, they eat too many carbohydrates for breakfast without enough fibre or protein to balance them. Many breakfast cereals are also high in sugar and fat. Eating a bowl of cereal is as unhealthy as having five chocolate chip cookies, according to recent research.

Multigrain porridge

Porridge made out of whole grains are better than highly refined breakfast cereals, such as cornflakes. Whole grains contains complex carbohydrates, which release their energy more slowly into the bloodstream.

Studies have shown that a breakfast that includes protein will release energy at a steady level for hours. A breakfast that contains protein as well as complex carbohydrates, beats anything else. Grains, rich in fibre when consumed as porridge helps to remove cholesterol and toxins.

A breakfast that contains protein as well as complex carbohydrates, beats anything else.

Having Oats porridge is good as it is a whole grain. But consuming Oats everyday increases purine content in body and that has a side effect of Gout (complex form of arthritis, severe joint and knee pain) over a period of time. so its advisable to consume twice or thrice a week and not more than that.

Always combination of various mix of grains enables complete nutrition. In our daily life, we consume some of the grains, not all. So a multigrain powder, where individual grain are handled properly and prepared in powder form is one of the simplest form to get better nutrition. That too with milk is calcium rich.

Conclusion

As a conclusion, multigrain porridge is far better than ready to eat cereals. Added to that, those who ate plenty of fruit and vegetables and drank lots of water were far more likely to feel fit, healthy and happy. Mix and match various cereals and pulses to prepare the porridge mix is best way to get various nutrients.

References: NCBI, Healthline.com

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Multigrain porridge (Sathu maavu kanji), How to prepare at home? - Traditional & Simple recipe

What is multigrain porridge?

Multigrain porridge called with different names like congee, ambali, kanjee. In typical south india it is called as Sattumavu Kanji, which was given to children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. It was considered as one of the best source of nutrition for young kids and good food for elders as well. Even today, lot of people prepare this powder traditionally in their home. Combination of ingredients varies for each school of thought.

Boiled rice, Ragi, Wheat, Barley, Moong are some of commonly known ingredients. Some people adds horsegram, roasted gram, poppy seeds, almonds, and cardamom also. Porridge preparation is simple, just mix a couple spoons of powder in a glass of water and boil for a minute or two. Then add milk and sugar or buttermilk and salt as per taste. We can have this with Rasam or prepare delicious payasam with jaggery or make laddus with ghee and jaggery. Its very ideal for breakfast and healthy and nutritious food.

For people who don't like it as traditional food, can try even homemade biscuits and cakes by using this powder instead of white flour. we can make breakfast bars with this by adding honey and dry fruits. Let us see how to prepare this at home with common ingredients. Just to help, some real time tips are mentioned at the end.

Ingredients of porridge

• Cereals - Finger millet, Barley, Whole wheat, Boiled rice - Each one cup
• Pulses - Black channa, Green gram, Roasted gram - Each one cup

Method of preparation

Choosen ingredients needs to be cleaned, sprouted, roasted and then ground to get the nutritious health mix. Let us see each step in little detail. You can check our blog post to know each process in detail.

Step 1: Cleaning/Rinsing of grains

All ingredients need to washed in normal or luke warm water separately. This makes sure any mud particles and unwanted things is removed properly. While rinsing, if any hard particles exist like stones, it get stays in the bottom of the container, we need to make sure to remove it.

Step 2: Soaking/Fermentation of the grains

This step is purely optional. Some of the ingredients can be used directly and other can be sprouted. Sprouting is extra process and time consuming. But it increases the nutritive value of the grains and makes it easily digestible. Especially when you prepare this mix for infants, it is advisable to sprout and then use. If you are not able to sprout at least allow them to be soaked for couple of hours roughly, that removes the toxin from the grains. Overnight soaking is best practice for hard grains, you can take a call based on your convenience.

In our set of ingredients, Finger millet, whole wheat, black channa, green moong can be sprouted. Sprout each grain separately. We need to plan accordingly as it take a day or two. I mean, choose the ingredient for sprouting and start the process one day before, So that it will be ready and we can move to next step for all grains in same day.

Step 3: Roasting of grains

After soaking and sprouting allow the grains to get dry in a dry cloth under a fan or in cool dry place. Once it is properly dried, then we can roast each one separately in the dry pan one by one. Keep the flame of low mode while roasting. Once you feel the aroma of roasted grain, remove it from pan and allow it cool. It may take 2 minutes to 5 minutes depends on the grain. Small grains like finger millet will gets roast faster in compare with chick peas. You can mix all the grains now while its get cool.

Step 4: Ground the mixture

You can get this ground in a floor mill. Allow the powder to get cooled completely and store it in a air tight container.

Some things to keep in mind in the process

1. You can also choose more grains as ingredients based on your choice like Amaranth Seeds, Horse gram, Foxtail millet, Little millet, Groundnuts, Oats grain/ flakes, Sago, Cardamom and Almonds.
2. Combination of grains and quantity of grains is purely choice of us.
3. Each step till roasting should be handled separately for each grains, as the size of grains vary.
4. Request you to ground some plain rice in floor mill before the mixture. In public places, they keep grounding various things, grounding rice first, cleanses the machine and also unwanted or previous grounded things comes out along with rice flour.
5. Hot powder attract moisture that in turn reduce the shelf life of powder and also gives bad aroma and infected faster.
6. Normally if we store in a air tight container, it stays for couple of months. We can prepare this is in small quantities as and when we require.
7. We can change the combination of ingredients however we want to get different taste every time.

How to prepare porridge?

Mix 2 spoons of powder in half glass of water. Mix throughly without lumps and allow it to boil in low flame for couple of minutes. It gets thick and porridge is ready. Milk and sugar can be added upon once taste and consumed. You can also try with salt and buttermilk.

Other multigrain recipes:

1. You can prepare sweet porridge by mixing jaggery and some roasted cashews with saffron and cardamom.
2. Mix the equal amount powder and jaggery with some melted ghee and just prepare balls by holding in hands tightly (like we prepare laddu). This can be healthy snack.

Don't worry, we have followed all this process when we produce ammae products. Check out Ammae's Tasty Cereal Mix (an Multigrain porridge for General nutrition) and Health Mix(an instant porridge).

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Health benefits and Nutrients available in Grains - An Overview

What are the Benefits & Nutrients available in whole grains?

Consuming grains in our daily life is very essential. They provide a lot of health benefits and nutrients contained in that is very much required for our body.

Whole grain has 3 parts:

• Bran - Outermost layer or external skin of grain. Contains fibre, antioxidants and minerals.
• Germ - Middle layer of grains. Contains carbohydrates.
• Endosperm - Inner Core part of grain. Contains minerals, vitamins, proteins and trace elements.

Whole wheat, Oats, Buckwheat, Brown rice, Quinoa and millets are some of the example of whole grains.

Health Benefits of whole grains

1. Consuming whole grains as part of a healthy diet may reduce the risk of heart disease.
2. Consuming foods containing fiber, such as whole grains, as part of a healthy diet, may reduce constipation.
3. Eating whole grains may help with weight management.
4. Eating grain products fortified with folate before and during pregnancy helps prevent neural tube defects during fetal development.

Nutrients in whole grains

1. Grains are important sources of many nutrients, including dietary fiber, several B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and folate), and minerals (iron, magnesium, and selenium).
2. Dietary fiber from whole grains or other foods, may help reduce blood cholesterol levels and may lower risk of heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. Fiber is important for proper bowel function. It helps reduce constipation and diverticulosis. Fiber-containing foods such as whole grains help provide a feeling of fullness with fewer calories.
3. The B vitamins thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin play a key role in metabolism – they help the body release energy from protein, fat, and carbohydrates. B vitamins are also essential for a healthy nervous system. Many refined grains are enriched with these B vitamins.
4. Folate (folic acid), another B vitamin, helps the body form red blood cells. Women of childbearing age who may become pregnant should consume adequate folate from foods, and in addition 400 mcg of synthetic folic acid from fortified foods or supplements. This reduces the risk of neural tube defects, spina bifida, and anencephaly during fetal development.
5. Iron is used to carry oxygen in the blood. Many teenage girls and women in their childbearing years have iron-deficiency anemia. They should eat foods high in heme-iron (meats) or eat other iron containing foods along with foods rich in vitamin C, which can improve absorption of non-heme iron. Whole and enriched refined grain products are major sources of non-heme iron in American diets.
6. Whole grains are sources of magnesium and selenium. Magnesium is a mineral used in building bones and releasing energy from muscles. Selenium protects cells from oxidation. It is also important for a healthy immune system.

Note: Even though whole grains are good in nature, it is not suitable for everyone. People allergic to gluten, should avoid grains contains gluten. For example, Barley, Wheat and Soya needs to be avoided as it contains gluten. Oats, Rice, buckwheat, amaranth are suitable for people with celiac disease and gluten intolerance.

How to use grains in our daily life

We need identify many diets where we can use wholegrain instead of refined grain. We need to keep a eye on ingredients before we take it. Some of the simple ways listed can be a good start. We can be more creative and also venture new grains and recipes. Its all our choice of lifestyle.

1. Porridge can be prepared out of oats, finger millet and other grains.
2. Roti/ chapathi can be prepared with whole wheat.
3. Baked foods can be made using whole wheat rather than white flour.
4. Using brown rice instead of white rice once in a while.
5. Popcorns using maize corns, soaked wheat, soaked green gram are healthy snacks.
6. Using barley along with vegetables while preparing soups.

References: www.choosemyplate.gov, www.Healthline.com

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What is the role of grains (cereals, pulses, millet & legumes) in our Daily Life ?

Culture of consuming grains are traditional and it is staple food for everyone across the world from age old days across various civilizations. Over a period of time, they adopted various methods to consume and started refining the original process to suit their need and ease. Now, the modern technology identified process to produce food as ready to eat directly with minimal or no cooking. These made our lifestyle very fast and which in return complimented with health issue like obese and inflammation and so on.

Once again the cycle goes back. Today, nutritional study says, Cereals and Pulses occupy a major portion of the food pyramid. They provide the body with a powerful mixture of protective substances including fibre, anti-oxidant, vitamins and minerals and phyto-nutrients, and help ward off many diseases.

Typical whole grain consists on 3 parts. Bran, Germ and Endosperm. Choosing whole grains instead of refined grains has numerous benefits. It can help lower blood cholesterol levels, lower risks of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and many more.

Why should we consume whole grains?

• Its Cholesterol-free.
• Low in saturated fat but is a source of polyunsaturated fats that has essential fats.
• High in both soluble and insoluble fibre and resistant starch.
• An excellent source of carbohydrates.
• A significant source of protein.
• A good Source of B group vitamins, including foliate.
• A good source of many minerals, such as iron, magnesium, copper, phosphorus and zinc.
• A good source of antioxidants and phyto-chemicals.

Some of the typical wholegrain are

1. Whole wheat is a nutritious alternative to regular wheat and a rich source of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber.
2. Buckwheat is a gluten-free whole grain that’s packed with nutrients. It’s also a good source of resistant starch, which feeds your healthy gut bacteria.
3. Millet is an ancient seed that’s classified as a pseudocereal, as it’s consumed in a similar way to cereals. It’s incredibly nutritious and gluten-free.
4. Brown rice is a healthier alternative to white rice, as it contains the entire grain. Conversely, white rice is stripped of its bran and germ, making it less nutritious. Brown rice may reduce heart disease risk by various means.

Our elders used to consume various grains in their daily life that helped them stay healthy. Now the awareness of consuming grains in our daily life slowly spread across. It good, let us encourage that.

References: www.healthline.com

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