Forum Thermomix
Questions Doubts and Requests => Questions? Technical Issues? The Survival Guide => Topic started by: meganjane on June 11, 2012, 03:22:54 am
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I've read conflicting reports about how good quinoa is for you. One report is quite frightening, claiming that birds will not eat the fallen seed due to the saponin coating. Everyone advised washing it, but if that removed the saponins, then rain should too...
Here's the link (http://brent.kearneys.ca/2011/07/28/is-quinoa-healthy/) to the article about how bad it is. There's plenty of articles telling us how wonderful it is.
The guy in the above article is a research scientist, though not nutrition, but mathematics. He's a very clever dickie.
What's your view?
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Hi MJ, just read through the link you posted and this is my view:
When it comes to foods like quinoa which are talked about a lot, there are always going to be some people who absolutely love it and some who absolutely hate it, and there are often people on both sides who are very keen to get their beliefs across to other people. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I think its good to be aware of what you eat.
But sometimes I think the debate and publicity goes too far. As long as we are eating balanced diets and getting the nutrients we need for good health, I don't thinking including quinoa in a meal two or three times a week can be that bad. I know some people who eat it almost every day, and they don't show signs of any detrimental effects.
Whenever I hear stories like this, I am always reminded of my grandfather. In his day, food was food and you ate what you could get because there might not be another decent meal for a while.
Sometimes I think we are getting so obsessed with analysing foods that we forget to just sit back, enjoy it and be thankful that we have it at all.
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Well said Amy. I have never tried quinoa or chia seeds for that matter - I figure I have lived this long without them so why do I need them all of a sudden.
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Amy, you are right. People can argue both the pro's and con's for anything - you can also make statistics show anything you want. Remember the days when potatoes were bad for you ... bread was bad for you ... eggs were bad for you ... and so it goes on. Some of the popular and / or fad diets are also pretty absurd. I believe that so long as you eat a sensible, balanced diet your nutritional needs should be fairly well taken care of.
Having said that, I also use quinoa and chia in some, but not all, of my meals - they are simply an addition to my diet, not my main-stay.
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I feel that if we believed everything we hear/read we probably wouldn't eat at all. My Mum used to take note of things and try not to do/eat them until she found some things were negating each other.
I enjoy quinoa since discovering it and we eat it occasionally and enjoy it. It's another grain to add to the repertoire. I like freekah too but am having trouble finding it at the moment.
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Cookie, I haven't heard of freekah. What do you do with it?
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Have a look here, Amy . .
http://www.greenwheatfreekeh.com.au/about.php
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Thanks GF :D