This is such an interesting one to me. One of the things I am looking at on Reprogram is that we MUST eat enough kilojoules to maintain ourselves. This is something so few of us consider. For me, I am almost ready to enter Stage 3 of Reprogram, the maintenance/rest of my life stage, I have achieved my desired body composition, my blood profile is looking good, so shortly I will head into maintenance stage.
Since we do not snack between meals on Reprogram, this means that my three square meals must supply enough kilojoules for me to survive and thrive, and it must be said, this is something I struggle with a little, actually eating enough. So this is a nice little beverage that will add some nice kilojoules to my day, is easy to add to my meal, and has some nice nutrition aspects to it, and it tastes YUM!
MMMMM! Looks so good!
Ingredients - makes one
350ml milk (I used almond milk)
50g grated fresh carrot
1 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg yolk
1/8 tsp turmeric
dusting of nutmeg
Place the milk and the carrot in a small pot, simmer for about 15 minutes or until the carrot is tender. Allow to cool a bit, blend, I used my nutribullet for a really smooth finish, return it to your (cleaned) pot, add the maple syrup, vanilla, egg yolk and turmeric, heat, stirring continuously until it thickens slightly and the froth on the top begins to disappear, if you stick your finger in it at this stage it should be hot enough to make you go "EEK". Pour into a large cup, dust with nutmeg, enjoy.
Note- you may like this sweeter than I do, I added very little in the way of sweetness, I don't think it needs it, but you can add a bit more maple syrup if you want to.
Mmmm. I want another one now.
Now to the nutrition portion of our program, let's have a little look at this.
Okay, well, the good news first, we are getting a mighty whack of vitamin A here, more than our daily RDI, so for those of us who are hard to get carrot into (me), this is a good way of getting this into our diet. This is also going to provide almost a third of our daily calcium, a nice little dusting of magnesium, potassium, phosphate and iodine.
Okay, let's have a look at our macronutrients.
Oh. Okay then.
Protein - 4.8g - yep, happy with that.
Fibre - 3g, so that is more than 10% of my RDI, not bad for a beverage.
Total Fat ratio - 42%
Saturated + trans fat 7.7% of the total kJ intake of this beverage
Carbohydrate - 43%
Energy - 772kJs
So looking at this from a health perspective, I would say this is a sometimes drink. It has some really good aspects to it, some nice fibre and protein, it has enough kJs to boost my energy intake without adding empty kilojoules, it has some excellent vitamins and minerals, but it is below our target ratios in carbohydrate and above our fat ratio targets, yes, good fats for the most part, 58% monounsaturated, 22% polyunsaturated, but taken as a total, still too high. Paired with a meal that is high in carbs and proteins and low in fats, this could contribute to a nice round meal, but as a stand alone, or as an addition to a meal that is higher on the fat ratio scale, it will tip us into high fat territory, remember, we are looking for overall balance, and it is very difficult to get our meals and beverages all perfectly balanced, so we look over a day, over a week, how are we going? That is what we need to focus on. Big picture people! Big picture.
Perhaps I don't want another one right now. What day is it? Wednesday, I want another one on Friday!
Just for interest's sake, what if we were to swap out the egg yolk for a teaspoon of ground chia seed? What would that do to our nutritional profile?
Protein - 3.2g, so that has dropped a little.
Total fat - 35.7% - Oh, okay, well, that is a bit of a different story, isn't it? How about the total amount of saturated plus trans fats? 3.1%. Ah, now we are cooking.
Carbohydrate - 50%
Fibre 4.7g
Energy - 684kJ.
Right. So this is actually a better choice for us as an every day drink. It's fat is only just over our maximum target, so if we squint and stand on one leg and have it with a meal that is lower in fat it would be okay, and add some good nutrients. Its carbohydrate ratio is good, it has a really nice dollop of fibre in it, which so many of us consume too little of, and it has a little protein, but not enough to make us have to watch what we are eating for the rest of the day. Okay, this I am happy with, but how will it taste? Will the chia seed make it yukky? Only one way to find out, I will try it and let you know.
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