Quinoa Health Tips » Weight loss and Quinoa

Is Red Quinoa Grain Different To Cream Quinoa Grain?

Ken — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:31:25 +0000

I have mentioned a number of times on Quinoa Tips that I prefer red quinoa grains over the standard cream coloured quinoa. I have just bought a new supply from a UK company called Baldwins and have been enjoying the delights of red quinoa once more.

The main supermarkets and Health Food Shops did, for a while, stock red quinoa alongside standard quinoa but that has stopped now. In the UK quinoa is still hardly known at all. Some american friends have told me that in the USA it is well known and a mainstream food ingredient. We have got a good few years of catch up here to get to this point.

Quinoa Grains

The Look Of Quinoa Before Cooking

The biggest difference is obviously the colour. (See Photo) The cream coloured quinoa is an ivory colour and very uniform in size and shade. Red quinoa is not a bright red but more of an ochre shade. It probably should be called brown quinoa as the uncooked colour is more brown than red. The colour is actually a varied range of dark reds and browns.

The Look of Quinoa After Cooking

When you cook the quinoa the redness comes out more and the water you cook it in turns a dark browny red. What is surprising is that the tails that appear during cooking are white so you end up with a very attractive mix or colours when you have finished cooking your quinoa.

The Main Difference With Red Quinoa

I have found that the red quinoa seeds stay firmer and crunchier when you cook them. If you cook it for a long time then it still will hold its shape. This is different to standard quinoa where it can become very soft and break up. this makes red quinoa more suitable for quinoa salad recipes but not as good as a thickening agent for soups and casseroles. I tend to use the normal quinoa for these quinoa recipes and red quinoa for everything else

The Quinoa I am growing in my garden is called rainbow quinoa. It is, as the name suggests, multicoloured. I can’t wait to harvest it and see what that comes out like in cooking.

Could you base a weight loss diet on Quinoa?

Ken — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:22:31 +0000

Because I eat quinoa all the time and because I have lost a lot of weight people are beginning to make a connection between the two. I haven’t actually lost weight directly because of the quinoa but I have found it very helpful in maintaining my weight loss. It is tasty and filling and has become a large compnent of what I eat.

I have turned my thoughts to whether you could base a weight loss regime on quinoa and I think it would be possible. The only downside is that you could get bored with it after a few weeks unless you become a bit of a quinoa fanatic like me.

What makes quinoa so suitable for this is the fact that you do not need a lot of it to feel full. Quinoa is a natural food that takes time to be digested so you feel satisfied for longer.
You could include fresh vegetables and fruit to keep the calorie count down.

I know you would lose a few pounds per week by cutting out all processed foods and carbohydrates. The other thing to omit would be meat protein – all the protein you would need can come from the quinoa. So it is possible to base a weight loss diet on quinoa.

Quinoa calorie count for dieters

Ken — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:13:47 +0000

Quinoa is a permitted food in many modern weight loss diets and yet it is not very low on calories as you would think. For every 50 grams serving of quinoa there are about 175 calories. The main reason quinoa is good as part of a calorie controlled diet is that it is very filling. Another reason is that quinoa goes well with other healthy foods. You wouldn’t eat quinoa with a burger would you?
You can combine your serving of quinoa with a pile of salad vegetables and still have a main meal for less than 300 calories. Quinoa is very high in protein content so you do not have to eat meat with it. A salad like this is a complete and substantial meal.
You could have this salad for lunch plus another quinoa based stir fry for dinner and only have consumed 600 calories. With a few well chosen snacks you can easily keep your daily calorie count to 1000.
The other quinoa health benefit for dieters is that quinoa is a low fat food. So for most weight loss diets quinoa fits in very well.

Quinoa as part of a weight loss diet

Ken — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:32:33 +0000

I have used Quinoa in my own weight loss diet with great success. Because Quinoa is such a complete food and is very filling you do not need to eat a lot of it to feel satisfied.

The Diet I have been on includes quinoa in the route to management phase in week three. I found this very helpful because quinoa is such a substantial ingredient compared with all the other foods I was allowed. Don’t get me wrong – I love all the fruit and veg but Quinoa has a sort of light nutty taste which adds a bit of texture to otherwise bland foods.

Because the carbohydrates in Quinoa are slow releasing you do not get a rush of energy like with other foods. Quinoa is classed as a vegetable protein which is very easy to digest.

So Quinoa tastes good and is great in a weight loss diet for making you feel full.

You can read more about my weight loss on the lighter life diet on my other blog. This is a diary of what is happening on my diet and a record of what I am eating.