Lunch

Hello 

I made this delicious salad for lunch the other day, with red quinoa which I hadn't tried before and it's great because it has a really nutty flavour compared to standard white quinoa. Quinoa is quite high in protein, for a grain anyway! With about 16% of the calories in quinoa coming from protein, meaning the percentage of protein quality for this type of product is quite high. We are quite obsessed with protein generally as a nation but there is so much discussion about how we are actually consuming far too much of it (mainly meat and dairy based protein). Consuming excess protein is often stored as fat, with the extra amino acids excreted. It's known that we also have a limited amount we can absorb at one time meaning it is so much more efficient to spread out our protein intake rather than consuming a super protein rich meal all at once or a shake (speaking generally, obviously this differs between person to person especially if training or an athlete). I used to always be quite aware of how much protein I eat as I have been vegetarian from birth and protein was always the one talked about when I learnt more about how to be a healthy vegetarian, however my diet is high in eggs, beans, nuts and seeds (I eat little dairy but sometimes live yogurt and a little cheese) and so over the last 5 years or so I have become less focused on it as I get plenty from all these foods! 

It's also great because red quinoa is higher in fibre compared to white quinoa. Fibre is great, as we know for our gut health and digestion. In my dissertation at Uni my focus was diet and cancer, and so fibre was a large part of my research regarding bowel cancer. Many pieces of research have found that fibre is really protective against bowel cancer because it reduces the transport time of potentially carcinogenic compounds through our intestine (bowel) meaning they are less likely to be absorbed into our bloodstream (majority of our nutrients are all absorbed through our small intestine). 

Also with the salad I had a little avocado for those healthy fats, chickpeas, some spinach and rocket, beetroot, olives and a drizzle of rapeseed oil. I also had some vegan garlic spread that needed using up (made with almond butter) which was super yummy.