Canned Chickpeas vs Home-Cooked

Using pulses is a good way of getting protein and making a large portion on fast days. I have been wondering how home cooked pulses compare with tinned ones nutritionally, and not surprisingly home cooked ones contain fewer calories, more protein and less salt (apparently much of the high salt content in canned chickpeas is reduced by thoroughly rinsing but I haven't been able to find data on this). I'm not surprised that the commercial/canned chickpeas weigh more, because the convention is that each tin contains 240g drained weight of chickpeas. Heavier chickpeas have a higher water content, which is a common way for food producers to give us consumers less food for more money. (It's also the reason many processed meats and fish have a high salt content, because the higher the salt the more water the product will hold).

Here is the comparison for one cup home-cooked chickpeas vs canned :-                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

	Home-Cooked	Canned
Weight	164.0g	240.0g
Calories	269.0	286.0
Total Fat	4.0g	7.0g
Sodium	11.0mg	718.0mg
Total Carbs	45.0g	39.0g
--Fibre	12.0g	10.0g
--Sugars	8.0g	10.0g
Protein	15.0g	11.9g
Vitamin A	1%	0%
Vitamin C	4%	0%
Calcium	8%	6%
Iron	26%	15%

Sources are amalgamated from:
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=newtip&dbid=10 and
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calorie-chart-nutrition-facts.
Since I'm going to all this trouble to improve my diet and lose weight it would be daft to eat less nutritious food – especially on fast days – so I'm going to cook my own pulses from now on.

Quick Low Cal Chocolate Pots (60 Cals)

I felt like a bit of a treat last night, and thought that a chocolate pudding would fit the bill. These little chocolate pots are pretty good, considering they are only 60 cals each; and they're really quick and easy to make.  I'll put a picture up next time I do them

Recipe (Makes 2 Desserts)

2 dsp Options Chocolate Drink

2 tbsp Instant Coffee

30g Cornflour (about 1-1/2 dsp)

Method

Add the chocolate and coffee to a pan with about 150ml water. How much water you add is a matter of preference, I prefer them smaller and more chocolatey. Gently bring to a simmer then take off the heat. Gradually add the cornflour to thicken and return to a very low heat stirring all the time. Simmer for 30 secs, pour into small mugs or ramekins.

If you have a few cals spare then why not a 1/2 tsp grated 70% chocolate (15 cals) or 1/2 tsp caster sugar and then flash over it with a blow torch to make a brulee topping (10 cals).

Nutritional Information (Per pot)

Calories 60

Total Fat 1.0g

Sat Fat 0.6g

Total Carbs 10.4g

Fibre 2.0g

Protein 1.8g

Home-made Sausages/Burgers (50 cals each)

Sausages & Sprouted Chickpea Salad 

When I make risotto. I often make an extra portion which I can then use to make these delicious sausages or burgers – depending on my preference for shape. 

Recipe (Makes 12 sausages)

1 portion Left-over risotto (Mushroom or other)

1 slice Wholemeal toast

1 Large whole egg

1tsp Grain Mustard

1tbsp Soy Sauce

2tbsp Flour

Method

Break the toast into small pieces and blend in a food processor, add the egg and continue to mix. Add the remaining ingredients (except for the flour) and process until they reach your preferred consistency – I prefer them to keep a bit of texture. Dust your hands with a little flour and form a roll or burger shape. Fry in a little oil turning until all sides are crisp and brown. Put in a pre-heated oven at 200 deg C for 15 mins.

Nutritional Information (Per sausage)

Calories 50

Total Fat 5.6g

Sat Fat 1.8g

Poly Fat 0.4g

Mono Fat 2.5g

Total Carbs 16.9g

Fibre 3.0g

Protein 5.4g

Sprouted Chickpea Hummus

Hummus, Salad, & Flatbread (about 200 cal)

Home-made hummus is really good – quick to make but heavy on the calories due to it's high oil content. This is a great version using sprouted chickpeas and no oil. It has a pleasant nutty flavour and the lemon is more noticeable than in regular hummus. I took this pic on a non-fast day, and you will see it includes 1/2 an avocado which is about 160 cals on its own. 

Recipe (4 servings)

100g Chickpeas - sprouted

Juice 1-1/2 lemons

4 Cloves Garlic

2 tbsp Tahini

1 tbsp Toasted Sunflower Seeds

0.5 tsp Paprika

0.25 tsp Cumin

Method

Blanch chick peas in boiling water for one minute. Blitz all of the ingredient in a food processor, add small amount of water to bring to preferred consistency; salt & pepper to taste.

Nutritional Information (Per Serving)

Calories 97.0

Total Fat 5.0g

Total Carbs 10.0g

Fibre 29.0g

Protein 9.1g

Vitamin A 2.1%

Calcium 2.6%

Iron 4% 

Home-made flatbreads

These flatbreads are quick and easy to make, and when served immediately are much better than shop bought pittas and flatbreads. They are good with my sprouted chickpea hummus.

Recipe (Makes 6 flatbreads)

100g Spelt flour + 25g for rolling

1 tbsp Olive Oil

Method

Mix the flour and oil in a bowl, add water to make a loose dough. Knead for a couple of minutes to make it stretchy. Spelt flour doesn't require much kneading. Divide into 6 equal balls and roll out as thin as you can. Heat a dry non-stick frying pan, cook each flatbread for a minute or two, when it starts to puff up turn it over and cook for another minute.  As an option use 2/3 spelt flour and 1/3 rye flour. 

Nutritional Information (Per flatbread)

Calories 75

Total Fat 2.0g

Total Carbs 12.0g

Fibre 1.3g

Protein 2.1g 

Fats and Cholesterol

One of my main objectives in following this diet is to improve my cholesterol level and my heart disease risk. I've noticed from my food diary that about 35% of my diet is fat, which is a big surprise to me because I don't seem to add much fat and eat hardly any cheese. It seems that there is nothing intrinsically bad about fats, we need them as part of a balanced diet; but the advice is now clear-cut: saturated and trans fats are not part of a healthy diet.  Whilst reseraching this I found a good source for nutritional advice – The Harvard School of Public Health – this is their page on fats and cholesterol:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/fats-and-cholesterol/

There's quite a lot to read through, here's a summary of their recommendations:

1. Use liquid oils for cooking and baking. I always cook with olive oil but have been baking with butter, so I'm going to try switching to vegetable oil and I'll give olive oil a go in some savoury recipes.
2. Avoid trans fats completely. Check the labels on shop bought cakes, pastries and biscuits, and avoid deep fried food when eating out unless you know the type of oil used for frying.
3. Switch from butter to soft tub margarine. This argument seems to have gone on for years. The advice is that hard margarine (in a block) is less healthy than butter because it contains trans fats, soft tub margarines are healthier than butter. I've changed to spreads with plant sterols which claim to lower cholesterol, but I'm going to check out these claims in the near future.
4. Eat at least one good source of omega-3 fats each day. They recommend fatty fish (tuna and salmon), but for veggies hemp seed oil seems like a good source. See  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp_oil  I'll be adding 3 teaspoons (15ml) to my food each day; and also eating a few walnuts and almonds. The American Heart Association recommends an omega-3 intake of 1000mg (ie 1 gram) per day.
5. Cut back on red meat, cheese, milk and ice cream. It's easy to substitute cheese for meat as the main source of protein, but with my cholesterol profile I've stopped buying cheese except for a little parmesan to top things like stuffed pancakes, and only use milk for coffee.

In summary – use good oils for cooking and baking (eg olive oil and liquid vegetable oil), stop eating butter and switch to a soft spread, make sure you have a daily intake of omega-3 and 6, cut back on red meat, cheese, milk and ice cream.  

Vitamins and Iron

One raw carrot per day = 100% RDA vitamin A

I really recommend the calorie counting website/app  www.myfitnesspal.com. It is an easy way to keep a track of what I am eating and of planning recipes and meals. I have found this diet to be a really good learning experience -- I have become much more interested in nutrition and what I eat. The core of myfitnesspal is keeping a food diary.

One of the best things that I've learned from keeping a food diary is that I have been short in Vitamin A and Iron.  I googled 'foods rich in Vit A' and now eat at least one raw carrot a day. Being a non meat eater, the iron isn't so easy to fix, because the sources of significant quantities of iron are all meat based -- liver is good if you're interested. (Food trivia  -- apparently before iron was available as a food supplement the only known cure for pernicious anaemia was large daily servings of raw liver -- yuk!).  I've opted for a multivitamin with Iron.  Before keeping the food diary, I was completely unaware that my diet was low in vitamins and iron. Already

I'm feeling brighter and more energetic. Is it the weight loss or did I have an iron deficiency? It really doesn't matter because I'm happy to be feeling better.