Skip to main content

Quinoa & Amaranth- Super Foods

So I am making baby food for my 6 month old son. We started solids about 2 weeks ago and he is doing great with them. Just like with Jenny, I skipped the typical rice cereal first food trend and went straight for high nutrition fruits and veggies. So far Seth has had banana, applesauce, pear, blackberries, prunes, sweet potato, butternut squash, carrots, & avocado.

I am going to introduce grains next, and have decided to start with Quinoa and Amaranth, two of my favorite grains. Here is a great page I found when researching these grains as first baby foods: The Littlest Foodie.

What is Quinoa or the Amaranth nutritionally?

  • The main feature is their high proportion of protein up to 18% against 10-14% of classic cereals.
  • Their proteins have high proportions of essential amino acids that the body does not produce, such as cysteine, lysine and methionine.
  • Both wheat and rice are low in essential amino acids…the contrary to the quinoa or the amaranth oops!
  • According to FAO and WHO these grains are almost perfect and balanced for its protein value (leaving behind to cow's milk, soy, beef, wheat and maize).
  • They're richer in iron, phosphorus, fiber, vitamin E (and several more of the alphabet) than the conventional grains. An idea, a cup of quinoa has 51 mg in calcium to 28 mg of the classic cereals.
  • 400 calories per 0,1 kg (0.2 lbs) - totally useful for kids, pregnant women and athletes.
  • For cases of gluten-free diets (celiac disease) are absolutely perfect, hence the huge amount of gluten free food recipes available include them! Vegans delight as well and they're wonderful in healthy eating plans.
A few more clicks landed me here: Breakfast Quinoa. O my! This is on the menu for sure.

For pregnancy, postpartum, first baby foods and a healthy food plan, add Quinoa and Amaranth to your menu! 


Labels:

Comments

  1. KateJune 28, 2010 at 2:26 PM

    I ended up introducing whole grain rice cereal flakes and organic oatmeal bc I am not certain my baby's immature system is digesting the amaranth yet. No matter it is a good supplement of texture and nutrition to the fruits and vegetables he eats. I also think it's neat that amaranth has a "crunchy" texture that even his toothless little mouth can "chew".

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I don’t have a Diastasis- Why is my abdomen still distended postpartum?

I get asked this question all the time! Here is my answer: Research has shown that 100% of pregnant women will develop some degree of diastasis recti. A diastasis is a lateral separation in the abdominal wall between the recti or “six pack”, due to a stretching of the midline connective tissue or “linea alba”. Although some diastasis will heal postpartum, in many cases a separation will remain without restorative exercise. Distention from DR will present as a doming in the midline. Women who heal a diastasis spontaneously or through restorative exercise may still find that their abdomens are distended, particularly after a meal and/or at the end of the day. If there is no diastasis, why is this? This abdominal distention does not occur in the midline, but rather across the entire abdominal wall. This is due to a weakened hypotonic TVA- transverse abdominis muscle. The TVA is the deepest anterior abdominal muscle, wrapping around the midsection like a girdle, with a left an...
2 comments
Read more

BulletProof Coffee

I have a client who regularly makes us a cup of BulletProof coffee before our workouts. I have come to enjoy its flavor. BulletProof Coffee is simply black coffee blended in a blender (not mixed with a spoon), with clarified grass fed butter (Ghee) and a medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) oil (Coconut oil works). Apparently there are benefits to brain function by blending healthy fats with your morning coffee. Also it has ketonic diet sympathies, as the fasted body in the morning continues burning healthy fat as energy, reducing hunger and helping with weight management. This is my understanding, anyway. I find it tasty and it perks me up :) Interested in making this for myself, I went to Amazon looking for products. Here is what I found- typical of protein powders and health food supplements, I found a lot of packaging and marketing. This BulletProof coffee package which costs $75.99 for coffee and some hyped up coconut oil? Then there is this Ghee at $57.99. As I added thes...
1 comment
Read more

Teaching!

I love teaching. It is one of my passions and I am working towards incorporating more of it into my professional repertoire. As a personal trainer I teach 1-on-1 all day every day. When I present to groups, I reach more people at the same time. Since 2006 I have been giving talks at the Running Room to clinics of all distances. I love educating runners about core, effective cross training, incontinence, and the importance of training smart. Knowing they all want to be uninjured and still running in 10 years, they are a captive audience and I am always very well received. My runners give me great feedback, they love my talks, and the instructors keep inviting me back. I think my genuine enthusiasm comes through, and is a tremendous strength of mine when teaching. In 2014 I designed a Trainer Trainer Workshop to educate other fitness professionals on Diastasis Recti, pelvic floor wellness, and safely training the pre and postnatal demographic. It's a 4 hour presentation that I...
2 comments
Read more