Great Grains: Quinoa vs. Amaranth

What few people realize this days is how many so-called "superfoods" are blatantly overlooked in modern society.  There are a whole host of different, whole, natural foods that provide more health benefits than can easily be described in one article, which many people have either never heard of or never cared to look at twice .  Two of these superfoods that I strongly suggest you consider fitting into your diet are ancient grains called Quinoa and Amaranth.  These little beads are packed with some of the best stuff nature has to offer, and definitely deserve the spotlight at least once in my blogging career.

Quinoa

Amaranth

Now if the names are what drove you to disregard them, I can sort of sympathize, as they're not the most easily pronounced foods.  Quinoa is pronounced "keen-wah", while amaranth is a little more obvious and is pronounced "am-a-ranth."  There, see?  Not so scary or outlandish.  Let's delve into the history of these grains just a little bit before I start spouting off everything these grains have to offer.

What's interesting about both of these grains is that they both were known about far before ANY of your traceable ancestors walked this earth.  Surprisingly, both come from ancient South American cultures.  Quinoa was considered a sacred grain in the Inca society, and amaranth was a staple in the ancient Aztec civilization.  Both civilizations were masters at harvesting their respective grains, and knew of their powers far more-so than our modern society does today.  Funny how things work like that, right?  We claim to be so knowledgable about the world, and yet somehow we overlook some of the best stuff nature has to offer.

Amaranth and quinoa are both very similar grains, and to the untrained eye they might be mistaken as the same thing.  Both of the grains are small and bead-like, and the only really discernible differences between the two is the size of each kernel.  Quinoa grains tend to be slightly larger than amaranth, and also come in white and red varieties.  Nutritionally though, these two grains are extremely similar.

Protein:  What's truly unique about these grains is the amount of amino acids they possess, and therefore their extremely high protein content.  Quinoa especially is known as probably one of the greatest sources of plant protein there is in the world today, and that's because unlike the vast majority of plant protein, quinoa has a complete amino acid profile, which means your body has all the essential amino acids it needs to start building muscle directly from quinoa.  That's great news if you're looking to get more protein into a vegetarian diet.

Amaranth also has an extremely high protein content, however unlike quinoa the essential amino acid profile isn't QUITE complete.  That means your body can't use amaranth by itself to build muscle right away, but let me tell you guys it's darn close.  Amaranth (and quinoa as well) is extremely high in an amino acid called lysine, and while it isn't complete (due to the lacking amino acids leucine and threonine), it still can provide the body with a large amount of incomplete protein which may be completed at other points throughout the day with other foods.

If you're a numbers kind of person, here's the scoop.  One cup of cooked quinoa contains 8.1 grams of COMPLETE protein, and one cup of cooked amaranth contains 9.3 grams of INCOMPLETE protein.

Fats:  Both quinoa and amaranth are sources of extremely healthy, unsaturated fats.  Neither grain has any saturated fat to speak of, and therefore you need not worry about raising bad cholesterol levels through the consumption of these grains.  I'll stick with the one cup measurement, and in quinoa and amaranth respectively there are 3.6 grams and 3.9 grams of fat.  Again though, healthy fats, don't be afraid of them.  FAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU FAT!

Carbohydrates:  This is what I love about these grains, as it seems that almost everyone these days is getting their carbs from starchy, sugary, unhealthy sources.  Both quinoa and amaranth provide healthy, complex carbohydrates that digest more slowly and fuel your body for a longer period of time with NO sugar crash.  Believe me, you need healthy carbs (although I did just write an article on ketogenic diets), and the more sources of healthy carbohydrates you can find, the better.  Quinoa and amaranth both fit the bill quite nicely, and in one cup of each there are 39 grams and 46 grams of carbohydrates respectively.  Not bad, right?

Fiber:  Both these grains are packed with healthy fiber, which you could always use a little more of in your diet.  Fiber doesn't only insure a healthy digestive tract, but also slows down the digestion of other food so that your body gets a chance to use everything you give it.  This leads to less fat storage in the long run, and I'm sure you'll all be interested in that.  One cup of quinoa and amaranth both have 5.2 grams of fiber.  Awesome!

Vitamins/minerals:  Both these grains are packed with vitamins, specifically vitamins B1, B2,B3, B6, and E.  Quinoa is slightly more vitamin dense than amaranth, but either grain will boost your overall vitamin intake for the day quite nicely.  In terms of minerals, both grains are rich in magnanese, magnesium, phosphorus, and iron.

You may be wondering how to actually eat these fantastic grains, and not to worry, I have a great link for you that describes a common method of cooking each grain on the stove.  It's not difficult or overly time consuming, so don't use that as an excuse to ignore such a fantastic superfood.  Here's the link:

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART03177/How-to-Cook-Amaranth.html

There you have it!  A little overview of what may be some of the best plant nutrient sources on the market today.  A word of caution, these grains can be a little harder to find than something like oats, but don't despair, one trip to your local health food store should yield results.  Keep in mind though, these grains are usually stored in the refrigerator when in their raw form, so don't get confused when they're not on the shelf next to the Kashi cereal.  Believe me, these grains are definitely worth the little effort required to get them.  They'll make you a vastly healthier person with a body to be envious of.  And boy are they tasty!

Be adventurous, embrace the ancient grains, and as always, GOOD LUCK!

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranth#Nutritional_value
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa
http://www.livestrong.com/article/266224-amaranth-quinoa-nutritional-guides/
http://www.askmen.com/sports/foodcourt_100/149_eating_well.html

Going Ketogenic (Atkins, TKD, CKD, And More!)

Maybe you've heard of them, or maybe you haven't.  But they're out there: low carb diets which promise to lose you pounds off your waistline and keep tasty foods in your meals.  And if you can stave off the craving for breads, fruits, and sweets, these diets might be ones to try out if you're really looking to lose some serious fat.  They have been proven to be quite successful in most overweight individuals, and have a huge following in both the fitness world and the general public.  But there's a lot of information out there, and quite a few different types of low carb diets, so things can get pretty confusing quite quickly.  Let's explore the differences between different low carb or "ketogenic" diets and see if one or the other might be right for you.

First though, I'd like to post a disclaimer.  Low carb diets AREN'T for everyone, and they're NOT THE ONLY WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT.  Many people can lose pounds of fat while keeping large percentages of carbs in their diet.  So don't go cutting the bread, pasta and rice without really knowing what you're getting into.

Okay, so what exactly is a "ketogenic" diet?  It's a pretty interesting idea actually.  The train of thought is that when you eliminate most of the carbs from your diet, and replace them with high amounts of fat and moderate amounts of protein, your body, which normally gets its energy from converting carbohydrates to glucose, is forced to instead find another energy source.  It does this by freeing up stored fat molecules, converting them into a substance called "ketone bodies," and using that special substance to fuel your body.  Amazingly, ketone bodies have a lot of energy potential, so after an initial energy low upon starting a ketogenic diet, dieters often report a large increase in energy due to the new energy source.  This state of running off fat is called "ketosis."  Pretty neat huh?

There are several types of ketogenic diets, one of the most common being the Atkins diet.  This diet is mainly focused toward the general public, and has some pretty strict guidelines as to carb consumption.  Normally, for the first few weeks, dieters aren't allowed to consume more than 20 grams of carbohydrates per day, and instead are encouraged to take in their calories through mainly protein based sources.  There are four phases to the Atkins diet, each with different rules and permitted foods.  These phases are:

The Induction Phase (20 g net carbs per day)
Ongoing Weight Loss (Increase of 5 g net carbs per week until within 10 lbs of target body weight)
Pre-maintenance (Increase of 10 g net carbs per week until weight loss ceases, then reduction of 10 g)
Lifetime maintenance (Carbs remain at the "tipping point" established in the pre-maintenance phase)

If you'd like to read more about the phases of the Atkins diet, here's a link to my favorite site:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkins_diet#The_four_phases

It's your favorite site too, right? =]

The Aftkins diet is strict in the sense that carbohydrate amounts start low and stay low for the duration of the diet.  You're always going to be carbohydrate deprived in order to maintain ketosis, and therefore are always going to have to watch your weight, plan ahead in terms of your diet, and make sure you don't go over the magic number of carbs.  You're also going to need to eat a LOT of protein, which to many keto dieters has been found to be a non-ideal solution to replacing carbohydrates.  Many keto dieters who don't follow the Atkins diet say that it's far better to replace carbs with healthy fats than it is to replace with large quantities of protein.  Also, the Atkins diet doesn't employ any caloric restrictions, which can be confusing and misleading to certain dieters.  Many who aren't successful on the Atkins diet fail because they consume too many calories from non-carb sources that are very calorie dense, like certain cheeses and peanut butter.

The Atkins diet does have a very large following though, and quite a few remarkable success stories, so it remains a popular staple in the ketogenic diet category.

But what about other sorts of ketogenic diets?  Well, the Atkins diet is geared more toward the general public, and non-gym rats.  The fitness crowd tends to employ its own version of the ketogenic diet, and probably the area of greatest success in terms of the ketogenic diet craze is in bodybuilding.  Bodybuilders usually cycle between bulking phases (attempting to put on muscle through calculated increases in calorie and macro-nutrient intake), and cutting phases (eliminated the inevitable fat gain on top of the muscle gain due to bulking) before competition.  One of the greatest cutting tools in the bodybuilding world today is in fact a ketogenic diet.  However the Atkins diet isn't optimal for high intensity gym visits because according to some, it really can decrease strength levels to an intolerable level.  To combat this, bodybuilders (and other fitness enthusiasts alike) use three different types of ketogenic diets:

Cyclical Ketogenic Diet- This diet takes the fat burning benefits of ketosis and mixes them with the power of carbohydrates.  You may wonder how this is possible, due to ketosis requiring an extremely low carbohydrate environment to really work.  You see, on ketogenic diets, some people experience extreme strength losses at the gym, despite the increased fat burning.  This will require them to do what's called a "carb-up" once, or even twice a week.  This carb up involves eating large amounts of carbohydrates on a certain day, then cutting carbs to between 30 and 60 grams on every other day to reinstate ketosis and increased fat burning.  This process should cause a carryover from the carb-up day to allow energy levels to stay managable at the gym, and will keep the dieter from fainting with exhaustion.  This diet is EXTREMELY popular in the bodybuilding world, and has shown to be very successful across the board.

Targeted Ketogenic Diet- This version of the ketogenic diet is similar to the cyclical diet in terms of increased carb intake at certain key points, but instead of on a certain day, the targeted ketogenic diet allows you to ingest large amounts of carbohydrates around workout time, to really give you that boost of strength in the gym, and give your body much needed carbohydrates for recovery.  Usually around 40-80 grams of carbohydrates are consumed pre and post workout, though that number can be adjusted based on carb sensitivity and fat loss goals.  Again, this type of dieting has been shown to be very successful in the fitness world.

Standard Ketogenic Diet- This one I don't need to talk about too much, as it resembles the Atkins diet quite closely.  It has no carb-up days, and requires the dieter to maintain net carbohydrates levels under about 30 grams per day.

Here's a more in depth article about CKD and TKD keto diets from bodybuilding.com:http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sclark91.htm

Also, ketogenic diets other than the Atkins suggest a larger ratio of fat to protein, which I personally like considering too much protein can cause all sorts of little digestive issues.  Some good starting macros for a ketogenic diet would probably be 60% calories from fat, 35% from protein, and 5% from carbs.  Look around a little though, because many people have tweaked these macros and are still making great progress.

So you may be wondering, is a ketogenic type diet right for you?  Well, if you've got a few extra pounds to lose, a ketogenic diet can really work wonders.  I personally would suggest trying out either a cyclical of targeted ketogenic diet first, especially if you go to the gym on a regular basis (WHICH YOU SHOULD.)  Don't take this article as your only research on the subject, look around the internet for people who have had success, read their stories, and make sure you know your plan BEFORE you embark on the keto journey.  You can get GREAT results, you just need to make sure you know every little nuance of your diet.

Keep things precise, burn that fat, and as always, GOOD LUCK!


http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/cyclical_ketogenic_diet.htm
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sclark86.htm