Product Review: Oats + Chia Apple Spice

We're heading into the cooler months, when porridge sales increase 10-fold (I'm just making that up, but surely it's a lot right?). And when you decide it's time to make the warming switch, there'll be one extra brand to choose from. The Chia Co are now making oats! Plus chia of course…

I decided to put it to the test on a recent overnight work trip, and there were 3 main things I was looking for: convenience, nutrition and (most importantly) taste! So how did it fare?

Convenience

Oats + Chia come in a small foil-lined sachet with instructions to either add cold water and microwave or add boiling water and let sit for a minute (literally one). Being that I was in a hotel room with no microwave and only a kettle, I went for the second option. And it worked really well! I poured the Oats + Chia into a mug, added the boiling water, waited and stirred. Super quick and simple and perfect for travel times like these (or early morning dashes out the door!).

One drawback? The price. A pack of five will set you back $7.30 compared to a 12-pack of Uncle Toby's quick oat sachets for just $4.00. A lot of this will be due to expensive ingredients though, including the chia and coconut oil. 

Nutrition

Chia + Oats contain maple sugar, dried apple, virgin coconut oil and spices along with the main stars oats and chia seeds. Now, while I can applaud the short (and identifiable) ingredients list, I'm not sure why you'd need coconut oil (or any type of fat for that matter) in a porridge? It doesn't have a manufacturing purpose that I'm aware of, and I certainly couldn't taste it, but it does significantly add to the saturated fat content.

On the plus side, this new porridge is a great source of fibre (6.1g or 25% of your RDI per serve), has a reasonable sugar content (given it is 10% apple) and some omega-3 ALA (from the chia). But I'd probably want to have it with some yoghurt or milk for a bit of calcium and extra protein to balance it out for brekky.

Taste

I sampled the apple spice flavour, which certainly lived up to its name. There was plenty of nice large apple pieces and lots of spice! While a combination of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, the main standout flavour was the ginger. A bit different to the standard apple cinnamon flavours you normally see, but I couldn't help but feel like I was eating a ginger nut biscuit in porridge form!

The final word?

Not a bad option when it comes to quick and satisfying winter breakfasts and certainly flavoursome, but I'd probably save the sachets for work trips and stick to my own home made version of oats and chia porridge on a day-to-day basis to save some dough and cut the oil.

Cafe review: Mint Organics

So I've got this list  of restaurants and cafes I want to try (on my phone of course, so I can add to it wherever). All my friends know about it. It's becoming quite large and now spans both Sydney and Melbourne (after a recent trip and many recommendations from a local Melbournian) so I figured it was time to start spreading the love and reviewing some of these places on my blog. Anyway, so last weekend I dragged and a girl friend of mine to one of the latest: Mint Organics. It's a small cafe in Cronulla (a beach-side suburb in Sydney, for those of you not familiar with the area) that prides itself on healthy organic whole foods (you can read my thoughts on organic food here). 

We went for lunch on a Saturday which I expected to be really busy as they don't take bookings, but despite being quite a small cafe we were able to easily find a table. Mint Organics are open 7 days a week from 7am-3pm so are definitely a breakfast/brunch/lunch/afternoon tea kind of place.

Location- 5/5

Close to Cronulla train station, it was tucked away from the rest of Cronulla's cafe scene, a lone shop opposite the beautiful Gunnamatta Bay. This had a two-fold effect of being quiet (and possibly unknown by many) and having many more parking options than the main streets! The cafe was small but cosy, with plenty of wood, metal and greenery.

Service- 2/5

Sadly, the service left a lot to be desired. While the waiters/waitresses were friendly, we waited too long for our table to be cleared (from the people who left just before us) and to be given menus. In fact, we got sick of waiting for the menus so grabbed them from the counter ourselves.

Menu Variety- 4/5

There was a good variety of choices- from mueslis with various alternative milks to bacon and egg rolls, wraps and salads to brown rice sushi. There were certainly a lot of vegetarian options, and opportunities for add-on's and alterations and the cabinet was lined with raw, vegan, sugar-free and paleo treats like raw (bliss) balls, brownies, muffins and cakes. So this really is more of a health-conscious person's mecca (i.e. don't bring your Dad, or the blokes from the footy team- unless they're into that kind of thing!). 

Taste- 5/5

I chose the seeded sourdough topped with avocado, fetta, basil pesto, rocket, toasted pepitas and a poached egg which was delicious and the perfect size! My friend and I also shared a coffee cacao raw ball which was tasty and my takeaway vegan chocolate brownie was yummy too (but I'm afraid there was no hiding the fact that it was still very much a treat).

Price- 4/5

Organic food doesn't come cheap. And this was evident in some of the prices (such as $10 for a smoothie) but other food items were quite reasonable and comparable to other cafes ($5.50 for sushi, $10 for muesli or $13.50 for a panini).

OVERALL- 20/25

The walls were adorned with interesting 'health' foods, like veggie chips, raw bars and organic grains which seemed in contrast to the highly processed protein powders, but Mint Organics did provide an array of basic, tasty and healthy options. I'd go there again!

Check out their website here for more details.

Strawberry, macadamia and oat muffins with sweet spices

A few weeks ago I went to a spice appreciation class at Herbie's in Rozelle (click here for their website). It was a lovely afternoon and the perfect birthday present for anyone who, like me, loves anything related to food. The idea of flavouring your food with herbs and spices instead of added fat, salt and sugar, is definitely one that appeals to me, and which, in my opinion, offers infinitely more possibilities! 

Now, when you think of herbs and spices you generally think of savoury dishes, right? Well, if you have ever added vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice to cakes or other baked goods, you've added spice to sweet dishes too! This time, I decided to venture further than these traditional ingredients and experiment with one of my Herbie's purchases: fragrant sweet spice mix. Made up of coriander seed, cassia, cinnamon quills, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, poppy seeds, cloves, cardamom and rose petals, it really is delicious to smell (and taste!). 

And so, this was my creation: sweet and fragrant strawberry, macadamia and oat muffins, full of fibre, low in saturated fat and sugar and with plenty of flavour! A perfect afternoon treat. Note: if you don't have access to this fragrant mix, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon with still give a lovely flavour!

Strawberry, macadamia and oat muffins with sweet spices

1 ½ C wholemeal SR flour

¾ C rolled oats

¼ C LSA 

¼ C brown sugar, plus 1 Tbsp extra

2 tsp fragrant sweet spice mix

1 egg

½ C skim milk

½ C reduced fat Greek-style yoghurt

¼ C oil (olive, canola or macadamia)

1 tsp vanilla

¾ C strawberries, diced, plus 2-3 extra, sliced

2 Tbsp macadamias, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Combine flour, oats, LSA, brown sugar and fragrant sweet spice mix in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk egg, milk, yoghurt, oil and vanilla.
4. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and gently combine. Fold through diced strawberries.
5. Divide mixture among 12 muffin cases, top with chopped macadamias and a sprinkling of brown sugar (from 1 Tbsp extra). Place a strawberry slice on each.
6. Bake for 25-30mins or until lightly golden and skewer comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins.

10 of the best free health and nutrition apps: Part Two

Last week I brought you 5 out of my top 10 free health and nutrition apps (if you missed it, click here). They weren't in any particular order (except number 1! But you'll know that if you've read 'part one'), so here are the next 5. I will say that after posting the first blog I was directed to an app I hadn't seen before but I thought good enough to make the list so there has been some rearranging (sorry to the app that didn't make the cut!).

Anyway, without further adieu…

6. GS1 Go Scan- GS1 Australia

From the people who are responsible for for the barcodes on the products we buy, and making the little beep when it goes through the register, comes GS1 Go Scan. This app allows you to search foods (by product description, brand or category), scan the barcode or enter the barcode number and it provides you with all the information available about that product. This includes the ingredients list, nutrition information panel, list of allergens, dietary information and country of origin. It lets you save your favourite products and set individual alerts for your allergens or other diet requirements (e.g. vegetarian, kosher, etc).

7. Quick Health Age Check- Bupa

Ever watched those episodes on The Biggest Loser where they tell the contestants their 'health age' or what age they'll live to if they keep up their unhealthy lifestyle (and then the improvements once they do change)? Well this app lets you do the same thing for yourself. It will calculate your health age and health risk based on your lifestyle factors, such as your weight, smoking status and medical history. You can then make adjustments to your lifestyle factors to see just how much of an impact certain healthy changes would have on your health.

8. All-Bran Fibre Tracker- Kellogg's

I have to admit I'm a bit of a freak when it comes to how much I love my fibre. And I know I'm alone on that one- most people aren't getting anywhere near the fibre they need from their diet. The All-Bran Fibre Tracker tells you how much fibre you need in a day and lets you track how much you get by adding fibre-containing foods that you ate. Search for foods by category or product (it has all the Kellogg's products plus loads of other generic foods). You can create a shopping list, scroll through the high-fibre recipes and work towards your daily fibre goal, all while learning about which foods are the highest in fibre!

9. Cal Cutter- NYC Health

This is an app which was developed by the New York City Health Department and I think it's a fabulous idea for an app! Enter your own recipe and the number of serves it makes and Cal Cutter will convert it to a healthier dish by suggesting changes you could make to the recipe that could lower the energy (by cutting calories (kilojoules)) and lets you save or email the healthier version. A great way to teach people how to modify recipes to make them healthier.

10. Cookspiration- Dietitians of Canada

This app was developed by the Dietitians of Canada (Canada's version of the Dietitians Association of Australia). It's ultimately a cookbook filled with with loads of healthy recipes plus their nutritional information. The app has a different set of recipes to suit each day of the week and each time of day (morning, late afternoon, evening, etc). It will automatically pop up as the time of day is with recipes divided into different categories to suit what you might want to be cooking then. A great trustworthy source of healthy meal ideas.

So there you have it, 10 of what I think are the best free health and nutrition apps out there. Think there's one I missed? Let me know and I'll be sure to share it with my followers!

10 of the best free health and nutrition apps: Part One

 

Technology just keeps amazing me. Maybe because when I was young computers just started being an every household appliance, and we moved from the old Nokia bricks to teeny tiny mobiles to large flat 'smart phones' and suddenly you're weird if you don't use email, have facebook and twitter and spend endless hours on your phone or tablet or laptop that you'll never get back again. Getting the sense that underneath all my blogging wizardry I'm actually a technophobe? Well you'd be correct. I'm what my advertising and marketing student boyfriend calls a 'lagger'. I was the last of my friends to get msn, myspace and facebook and I only THIS CHRISTMAS got a smartphone! (That's right, before then was a simpler time that consisted of only using my phone to send texts or make calls).

 

 

But the point I'm (slowly) getting to is that technology can be used for good instead of evil, especially when it comes to health. One of the most exciting parts of getting a smart phone, for me, was scrolling through the app store searching for awesome health and nutrition apps (free of course, because I remain a huge tight arse). So I thought you'd appreciate a list of my top 10 favourite apps! In fact I started writing this blog and realised it would be way to long if I did all 10 at once, so I've decided to break it into two blogs. Here are the first 5, in no particular order (although number 1 is my clear favourite)...

 

 

1. Easy Diet Diary- Xyris Software

 

 

 

From the makers of the software Dietititans use, Easy Diet Diary lets you keep an electronic diary of the foods you eat and the exercise you do. You can enter in your own profile, including your weight and energy goals, add your own foods and recipes or scan the extensive database of generic and branded foods and activities. Keep track of the energy you consume (as well as major nutrients, by food, meal and day) and the energy you burn to meet your daily target. You can even send the diary to your Dietitian who can then open it in their FoodWorks program!

 

 

2.      Food Switch- Bupa & the George Institute

 

 

A brilliant app that lets you scan barcodes while shopping to see what's in your food. It uses a traffic light system for different nutrients (green for good, orange for ok and red for not so good) and lets you select a switch- to generally healthier products, to products will less salt, or to products without gluten. An easy way to decipher nutrition panels and choose the better choice. You can save your favourites and make personalised shopping lists too.

 

3. 8700- NSW Government

 

This government campaign is a great one in my opinion, aiming to make Australians more aware of what kilojoules are (the unit of measure used for the energy people get from eating and drinking, also known as calories, in case you were wondering). You can calculate your 'ideal figure'- the number of kilojoules you need to consume to maintain a healthy weight- and then search the amount of kilojoules in fast foods (both generic and brands) as well as how many kilojoules you can burn doing everyday activities, sports and exercise. Each food also shows up how much activity you'd have to do to burn it off!

 

4. Calorie King

 

 

Calorie King has a website, a pocket book and now an app. You can quickly search the nutritional information of certain foods, by category, brand or fast food chain. And for those of you who just got your heads around kilojoules from the last app, Calorie King displays both calories and kilojoules.

 

5. My Energy Balancer- Medibank

 

It can be difficult to balance the energy you consume and the energy you burn, but this balancing act is (in the most part) what determines whether we gain weight, lose weight or maintain our weight. This app lets you search for a food item and choose your quantity, then choose an activity and it will show you how long you need to do it (say, walking) for in order to burn the food off. Or vice versa.

 



(Keep an eye out for the next 5 in my next post coming soon!)

 



Why you CAN have your Easter bunny (& eat it too!)

It’s nearly upon us (actually, according to the supermarkets it’s been upon us for months already)… Easter! That’s right, Easter has become a whole chocolate season, where people eat more chocolate than (the already large) usual, sometimes accompanied by sugar comas, stomach aches and empty wallets.

Every year Australians eat approximately 5.5kg of chocolate each. If you’re curious, that’s equivalent to 27.5 x 200g blocks! And because the major constituents of chocolate are sugar and fat (55% and 30%, respectively) that also means we’re guzzling down 3kg of sugar and 1.7kg of fat along with it!

The purpose of me telling you this isn’t to scare you off chocolate for life, but rather to make you more aware of just how energy-dense chocolate is. I love chocolate just as much as the next person, and I wouldn’t expect any chocolate-lover to have to go cold turkey on this sweet treat. Just keep in mind it is a treat, and will affect our waists if we eat too much of it.

Fun fact: the oldest chocolate bar in Australia
(& the one often voted favourite) is the Cherry
Ripe, which was created in 1924.

Now, before you get too upset, chocolate does have some benefits. Nutritionally, dark chocolate is a source of antioxidants, which help to fight off free radicals in our bodies (reactive molecules that can cause diseases). Studies have also found links to a reduced heart disease risk and we all know the emotional pick-me-up effect chocolate can have due to boosting our brains release of ‘happy’ hormones.

BUT, considering how high in fat chocolate is, there are better ways (and much healthier foods) to get these benefits from. For even bigger doses of antioxidants try colourful fruit and veg, for heart healthy nutrients include oily fish, oats and nuts in your diet and for an emotional pick-me-up try chatting to a friend or going for walk.

There's nothing wrong with enjoying a bit of chocolate,
just don't eat the whole block in one sitting!

Tips to enjoy your chocolate this Easter

• Wait until just before Easter to buy your chocolate gifts so they don’t tempt you in the cupboard
• Buy individually wrapped chocolates rather than large blocks or bunnies
• Store in an opaque (rather than clear) container in the back of the pantry so you’re not caught staring at them every time you go to the kitchen for a snack
• Enjoy small portions & savour by eating slowly and mindfully
• Sharing is caring- don’t hog all the chocolate, share it with family and friends!
• Make sure Easter doesn’t extend into a month-long celebration!

As a guide, try to choose chocolate treats that are less than ~500kJ or less. I’ve included a list below of some of the better chocolate options!

• 1 dark Lindt Lindor ball
•  3 squares Cadbury Old Gold 70% Cocoa Block
•  1 fun-sized Nestle Kit-Kat
• 3 small Cadbury Dairy Milk Easter Eggs
•  2 pieces Lindt Excellence Roasted Almond Block
• 3 pieces Nestle Club Peppermint Cream Dark Chocolate Block
• 2 mini Lindt Milk Chocolate Bunny
• 1 fun-sized Cadbury Freddo Frog

To put it into perspective, here are some healthy snacks with roughly the same amount of kilojoules:

• 1 large banana
• 2C natural air-popped popcorn
• 1 glass reduced fat milk with Milo

And the worst? Cadbury Creme Egg. One
egg has 718kJ! And who stops at one?

Product Review: Chic Nuts

I recently discovered this product when it was recommended to me by another dietetics student. I love the taste and think they're a healthy snack and a great way to get extra legumes into our day (one food group many of us miss out on altogether). Chickpeas themselves are full of nutritional benefits but I thought I would analyse these roasted chickpeas and do the hard work for you!

What are chickpeas?

Chickpeas are a legume. Also called 'pulses', legumes include all forms of beans and peas from the Fabaceae botanical family. Other legumes include: butter beans, cannellini beans, red kidney beans, soy beans, lentils, mung beans and split peas. Think baked beans, hommus, Mexican dishes and dahl!

Why are legumes good for us and how much of them should we be having?

Legumes are rich in protein, fibre, B vitamins and phytonutrients. They are low G.I., low in fat (in particular saturated fat), and gluten free.

They are the only food that are included in two of the five food groups:
- 'Vegetables and legumes/beans'
- 'Lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds and legumes/beans'

They are classed in the vegetable group because of their high source of fibre, vitamins and minerals, and as part of the lean meat and alternatives group because they are a good source of protein. This makes them great for vegetarians too!

The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend we have:
- 5-6 serves from the 'vegetables and legumes/beans' group each day (where 1/2 C of legumes counts as a serve), and
- 2-3 serves from the 'lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds and legumes/beans' group each day (where 1 C of legumes counts as a serve)

So when you eat legumes it counts towards your serves from both food groups!

So how do Chic Nuts stack up?

Chick Nuts are just chick peas that have been slow roasted and seasoned with salt and/or herbs and garlic. A serve is 25g (or around a 1/4 of a cup). This means it's equal to half a serve of veg!

I've used the nutrition information panel to compare Chick Nuts to the recommendations for each nutrient (see Nutrition Information Panels: Decoded) to see if Chick Nuts really are a healthy snack:

• Energy:             399kJ/serve    (Recommendation is <600kJ/serve for a snack)
• Total fat:           9.3g/100g        (Recommendation is <10g/100g)
• Saturated fat:    2.1g/100g        (Recommendation is <3g/100g)
• Sugars:             2.6g/100g        (Recommendation is <15g/100g)
• Dietary fibre:    4.1g/serve       (Recommendation is >3g/serve)
• Sodium (salt):   300mg/100g    (Recommendation is <400mg/100g)

The final word...

Chick nuts are a crunchy, salty snack that is a healthy alternative to things like chips, while giving you an extra serves of legumes (with plenty of fibre and protein). They meet all of the nutrition panel recommendations and get the tick of approval from me!