Milk, no matter how you shake it, is on  the top 3  healthiest drinks to consume list.. period. There is no age limit to this drink, it’s one of the only things the school system has got right since it first began and it comes from a natural source.. Moooooooo  (I won’t even state the animal).

The Nutritional guidelines that have been around for years and years state that they recommend you drink only low-fat dairy products and avoid whole milk, however this is modern day and Di Nutrition is the new era of nutrition.. so it’s only right we  let you know the truth about Milk.

Whole Milk Vs Alternative Milks What’s Difference?- The main difference between them is they all have different fat content in them. Whole milk has not been altered at all and will have the full amount of fat in it which is 3.25%, Low-fat Milk which has been altered so it has a lower percentage of only 1% or 2% fat.. then you’ve got skimmed milk AKA “Fat free milk” and you guessed it has 0% fat in it.

The protein in all three Milks is very good with Whole milk having 7.9g to 8.2g, Low-fat 8.g to 8.2g and Skimmed milk 8.3 to 8.7. I would also like to add that Skimmed milk unlike Whole milk has no added water in it, despite claims it takes all of the good nutrients away.

The Vitamin D is another thing; Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin so it can only be in something that has fat. However Low-fat and other types of milk get around this is the manufactures add the vitamin D themselves to the milk, which evens it out to around the same amount as each other. Whole Milk 97.6 IU (International Units), Low-fat Milk 127 IU & Skimmed Milk 100 IU.

Where you can really separate them though is their Omega-3 content. Omega-3 (Click Here) the fatty acids have a host of health benefits such as lowering the risk of cancer, heart health and brain health too. The bigger your glass of milk the more fat it has, which is great for you because the higher the Omega-3 on offer.

Why Do People Think Whole Milk Is Unhealthy?- It’s like I said earlier The Nutritional guidelines  have been around for years and years, these same guidelines have been telling people to avoid Whole milk because of the saturated fat in it and that this leads to heart disease.This has also been backed up by the media.

This is just an assumption made that saturated fat must increase the risk of heart disease; there is no evidence to back up the claim whatsoever. Even the scientists in their labs who have been experimenting on this for years  have  found no data to suggest that eating saturated fat causes heart disease.

DID YOU KNOW: Saturated fat does increase LDL but what has to be taken into account is that it also raises good HDL levels. If you have no clue about LDL & HDL then you must read this (Click Here) 

Whole Milk Helps You Control Your Weight- Another thing I see a lot of, is people not wanting to drink Whole milk because of a fear that the extra fat and calories will cause them to gain weight, when in fact that could not be further from the truth. Having high-fat dairy products, like Whole milk help prevent weight gain.

Of course if you go crazy and drink many bottles of Whole milk in a day consistently your fears will become reality, but that’s not typical is it? You’re more likely to gain weight if you have no milk at all and you’re drinking alcoholic beverages or fizzy drinks than any form of milk out there.

In fact if you look at just high-fat dairy products, like Whole milk, you will see there is always a connection between high-fat dairy and a lower body weight.

DID YOU KNOW?: In nine years a Woman drinking Whole milk every day is 15% less likely to gain weight over a period of the nine years than a woman who drank Low-fat or no milk at all for the same duration.

Is Diabetes & Heart Diseases Less Likely When You Drink Whole Milk?- Yes indeed, and just any other metabolic syndrome too  such as High Blood Pressure or Abdominal Obesity. The natural fatty acids in whole milk are the reason why you get these health benefits in the first place.

Lower Calories In Skimmed Milk Compared To Whole Milk- Skimmed milk has low-calories but still contains protein. As you know above, Whole milk and Skimmed both contain 8 grams of protein per cup. I must also add though that Whole milk only has 22% calories made up from proteins whereas 39% of the protein is found in Skimmed milk.

Skimmed milk provides a handful of minerals and vitamins with very few calories in it at all. In fact, Skimmed milk is very rich source of calcium, giving you around 297 to 300 mg per cup. This is even higher than the calcium that is found in Whole milk which is between 268 to 276 mg per cup.

Conclusion

Limiting Whole milk may be a popular choice because the nutritional guidelines are in the dark ages, but popular does not always mean wise or healthy.  There may be some circumstances where Skimmed milk is the best choice for you. But for the majority Whole milk will offer straight forward nutritional gains over Low-fat & Skimmed Milk any day of the week.

THAT’S IT!

I really enjoyed sharing this with you guys.  Please do let me know though…

What Do You Make Of All This?

What Milk Do You Normally Drink/Will You Be Switching?

What Are Your Biggest Challenges/Frustrations when buying milk?

How much milk do you drink per day ?

Of course Any other questions are always welcome just leave a comment below

Until Then Ciao

We Look Up 大 

Karim David

The Healthy One

The sequel is finally here..The Wonders Of Thai Food (Part2) Today I’ll be going into more detail about the Thai foods that I ate and the health benefits of these dishes.

It’s a first here on Di Nutrition to be covering any particular country’s dishes, and what better way than to start off with Thailand, as I feel so blessed to have eaten their foods.

If you missed out on part 1 then please go watch that right now.. yeah It’s a video (Click Here)

Ok without further ado here is The Wonders Of Thai Food (Part2)… Enjoy

Bao (Steamed Buns)- Now these little buns have a very uncanny resemblance to Boo from Mario Kart.

Despite that though I promise they’re no trouble what so ever, in fact Bao is very delicious indeed.

Bao is a steamed, filled bun, that’s bread like in taste and quite similar in touch. It can be filled with meat such as Chicken & Pork, vegetables & Fish such as Shrimp.

Bao’s origins actually stem from China, but the Thai people have adopted this dish and made it their own for many years now (They call it Siopao). The Thai people tend to eat this as a Snack/Dessert but I first tasted it at breakfast.

I was very impressed with the softness of the Bao and how both the meat and vegetable based examples exploded in my mouth to give a very nice taste. I slightly preferred the vegetable based one over the meat based one, as I felt the flavor had more diversity in it.

What I found really neat about this was the fact that Bao can be eaten on the go with no cutlery needed.

I would definitely recommend the meat Bao if you are looking for a way to get more protein in (Click Here) , and the vegetable ones as a much better snack for you than eating chocolates or  crisps (Potato Chips) any day.

Thai Coconut Soup- Thai Coconut soup aka Tom kha kai is a spicy and sour soup with coconut milk in it. It normally contains a lot of Peppers, Mushrooms, Lime, Chicken and Fish sauce.

What I very quickly found out was, despite the Coconut milk this dish was still really hot and it’s more like a curry then a soup.

I found the taste to be very creamy & rich, with the peppers really giving the dish it’s kick, I could  taste the lime too but I didn’t really feel it made it sour enough for me to even notice.. maybe I was to focused on the peppers 😅

I would recommend Thai Coconut soup as it’s very healthy though hot and is packed with vitamins, to be honest I’m not a fan of really spicy dishes but still loved this dish.. hot curry lovers will lap this up, no doubt.

Thai Pork Soup- Thai Pork soup is a very popular dish in Thailand and I was blessed enough to have this recommended to me at a restaurant.

Thai pork soup contains Pork (Duh) Leek & Carrot with a mixture of Thai flavors that give you a real experience whilst eating.

I really enjoyed this dish.. despite looking out of the window and seeing two tigers fighting each other!

First of all I felt the mixture between the Leek, Carrot and pork was really nice, and second it’s one of those soups that the flavor never gets old

I can see now why this soup is so popular over here; I would recommend this to you if you’re an eater of pork and love vegetable & meat based soups.

DID YOU KNOW?: Leek has Vitamins A and K, along with healthy amounts of folic acid, niacin, riboflavin, magnesium and thiamin in them.

Seafood- I enjoyed the fresh Sea food here in Thailand very much..despite hearing about non natives getting bad stomachs after consuming the local sea food in Thailand.

I had no such problems myself.  As you can see in the picture above I had Shrimps, Shell Fish, Sea bass, Fish & Noodle soup. I also ordered Crab with this and rice.

The shrimps were very nice along with the noodle soup. I was not too pleased with the fried Sea bass (I had to cut all that skin off) (Click Here)  but it was very tasty after doing so. I also for the first time in my life had Crab.

I had this along with the rice and to be honest with you it was mediocre, It’s not something I would go after to eat again.. and I much prefer Lobster than Crab.

I would recommend everything above except the Crab. The health benefits of Sea Food is great, such as low in fat/cholesterol, big on Omega’s (Click Here) ,high in protein…the list goes on, bottom line.. EAT MORE SEA FOOD ASAP.

Yoghurt- If you’ve read any of my blog posts before you’ll know I don’t really care for Yoghurt. To my surprise I started eating a lot of it over here.

The particular one I had was Thai and was very tasty  and on its own, not sweet at all. It’s only when you add the freshly cut Bananas to the mix that you really feel any sweetness hit your mouth.

I Really loved the combo of the Banana and the yoghurt.. I know it’s not a ground breaking combo, but I felt this Thai Yoghurt with the Banana was one of the best I’ve ever tasted in my life.

I would recommend this if  you love eating Yoghurt. I think even someone with a sweet tooth who’d initially think “this is not sweet at all” would really enjoy this Thai Yoghurt as the taste is to die for.

Thai Coconut Sticky Rice With Mango, Kiwi & Coconut Milk – Thai Coconut sticky rice is a Thai dessert dish served with a fork and spoon.. which you will become accustomed to for breakfast, lunch and dinner over here in Thailand.

This dish is very popular in the summer because the Mangos are in season then (April & May) . They call sticky rice “Khao neow” over here.

Now I ended up seeing this on a menu by an off chance, and it really caught my eye. I don’t normally eat desserts at all but I decided to order it this time around.

When I was finally presented with the Thai Coconut sticky rice I was amazed, It look so beautifully displayed on the plate. I thought how the Kiwi was presented was clever.. though that little ice cream cone thing was never eaten (You know I keep it healthy) , the mango was super fresh and tasted so good.. but for me the Coconut milk was the best thing on the plate!

It took me by surprise because it was warm and not cold, but it was no problem at all as it tasted nice on its own.. but with the sticky rice and mango it brought the dish all together.

It was like a well drilled football team every ingredient knew it’s role and delivered, which was nothing but  sheer heaven to my mouth and the best thing I ate to date in Thailand.. by a country mile!

So this goes without saying I would recommend this to you if you love food period.

THAT’S IT!

I really enjoyed sharing this with you guys.  Please do let me know though…

What Do You Make Of All This?

What Is Your Favorite Thai Dish?

What Are Your Biggest Challenges/Frustrations When Eating Asian Cuisines?

Are You A Fan Of Crab?  

Have You Ever Tried Thai Coconut Sticky Rice ?

Of course Any other questions are always welcome just leave a comment below

Until Then Ciao

We Look Up 大 

Karim David

-The Healthy One

It’s that time again Easter! The traditional route would be to talk about chocolate eggs, or a recipe for some cake… not happening! Word of warning, this is only for the serious people and Di1’s who are committed and laser focused to actually see out their Weight loss goals/Health this year.

If you are and you’re still reading this please (Click Here) this will really help you further.

Now it’s time to share with you 3 foods to eat more of this Easter… enjoy.

Lamb- Other than the whole Jesus being the sacrificial Lamb of God which is typically eaten on Easter Sunday, the other reasons you should eat more lamb this Easter include high protein (25 or 26 grams) which contains all of the beneficial amino acids you could ask for your body’s maintenance and growth, Vitamins such as Zinc, Iron & B12 and Stamina & Muscle function.

Lamb also helps prevent you from getting Anaemia. In fact the reason why most Vegetarians are more likely to have Anaemia over meat- eaters is because they don’t eat any meat, and meat has lots of Iron in it.

Nuts- If not allergic, are a great source of fibre and would recommend you eat these (Click here) what’s good also about nuts is that you can share them out individually for e.g if you have kids you can put them into a plastic Easter egg inside your basket, or hide them and then have yourself an Easter egg hunt.

Even foods such as Wholegrain cereal, Trail mix & Seeds are a healthy alternative to having chocolate eggs. All the healthy snacks just mentioned have something in common… they keep you fuller for way longer, which is good if your dinner is taking longer than expected to be ready.

DID YOU KNOW: If you’re having a hard time fitting nuts into your eating habits (Click Here)

Fruits- If you have a sweet tooth this is the replacement and it’s healthy for you. All fruits are so filling and contain a vast amount of health benefits (Click Here) you can cut them up and put them in a container, that way you will not get bored of eating the same fruit over and over again in the Easter holidays.

It goes without saying; buy real fruit and not any artificial ones, always check for freshness too. I’d advise you also to read the labels, but most of  you out there if you do bother to read the labels… don’t know how or what you are looking for. Sound like you? (Click Here) .

THAT’S IT!

I really enjoyed sharing this with you guys.  Please do let me know though…

What do you make of all this?

What are you struggling with most when it comes to the holidays & Healthy eating?

Are there any  other  foods you eat at Easter That’s Not on Here ?

Of course Any other questions are always welcome just leave a comment below

Until Then Ciao

We Look Up 大 

Karim David

-The Healthy One

If you are a Vegetarian  or a Vegan you’ll of heard the following question lots of times; “So how do you get your protein?” as many non Vegetarians  and Vegans  have concerns over you not having the right amount of protein intake.

Well they don’t have to worry, because it is possible for you to get the sufficient amount of protein and all the nutrients you need if you are a vegetarian or vegan.

Of course many plant foods have much more protein than others. Consuming higher- protein aids Fullness, Weight loss & Muscle strength.

Here are the 10 Best Proteins For Vegetarians And Vegans  

Tofu- Tofu AKA Bean curd comes from soybeans. Now Soybeans are well known for a being a whole source of protein, this means that they provide your body with all the amino acids it needs during the day.

Tofu is made from bean curd and is pressed together. As you’ll know already Tofu doesn’t really have much taste at all, though it easily absorbs the flavor of the ingredients you prepare it with.

Tofu can be used in a variety of different meals, from Soups to Burgers. It also contains Calcium, Iron and has between 9 to 19 grams of protein per 100 grams.

Quinoa- Is a cereal grain, but unlike other cereal grains it does not grow on the grasses. Non grasses would be a terrible name to call something so they went with “Pseudocereal”

Instead. You’ll get at least 7 to 9 grams of protein per cup which is a complete source of protein for you. Also Quinoa is a good source of Fibre  (Click Here), Carbs, Magnesium & Iron.

Chickpeas- Is a legume with a high amount of protein content in it, It contains 15 grams of protein per cup and it is also a great source of Iron, Folate, Potassium, Complex Carb, etc.

Eating a lot of Chickpeas will also help to decrease cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, reduce your belly fat and help control your blood sugar levels.

Lentils- Mean business they have 18 grams of protein per cup, and that means they are a great source of protein. They can be used in many different dishes, ranging from Dal to fresh Salads.

Lentils also provide you with about half of your recommended daily fibre intake. The type of fibre found in lentils has been proven to feed the good bacteria in your large intestine, which of course makes for a healthy gut. Lentils also contain a good amount of antioxidants.

Spelt & Teff- Are ancient grains. Other ancient grains include Barley and Farro. Spelt though, is a type of wheat and contains gluten, but Teff comes  from annual grass… which means it’s gluten- free.

Spelt & Teff provide 10 to 11 grams of protein per cup, making them the highest of the ancient grains in the world! Both are fantastic sources of  nutrients such as Iron, Fibre, Magnesium & Zinc, etc.

Spelt & Teff are versatile alternatives to your common grain, such as rice and wheat. They can be used in many foods such as Risotto or baked goods.

Green Peas- Contain 9 grams of protein per cup, which is slightly more than a cup of Milk (8 grams). Green peas covers your Fibre, and has Vitamins A, K & C plus folate in them.

Green peas are a good source of Zinc & Copper too.

Oats- Are a very delicious and easy way to get into adding more protein to your meals right away. Just half a cup of dry Oats provides you with about 6 grams of protein & 4 grams of fibre.

Although Oats are not really considered complete protein, they do contain higher- quality protein than other more well known and consumed grains like Wheat or Rice.

Amaranth- Is another “Pseudocereal” and contain 8 to 9 grams of protein per cup and like Quinoa is a complete source of protein, which is very rare among grains & “Pseudocereals”.

Amaranth is a good source of Complex Carbs, Iron & Magnesium.

Ezekiel Bread- Is made from organic, whole grains and legumes. These include Millet, Wheat, Spelt, Barley, and Soybeans & Lentils. Just two slices of Ezekiel bread contains approximately 8 grams of protein, which is slightly more than your average bread (Click Here).

Soy Milk- Is made from Soybeans and fortified with vitamins and minerals and is a great alternative of course to cow’s milk. It contains 7 grams of protein per cup, plus it’s an great source of Calcium, Vitamin B12 & D… Bear in mind that Soy milk and Soybeans do not naturally contain Vitamin B12, so picking a fortified variety is not recommended.

Soy milk is found in most supermarkets. It’s also very versatile and can be consumed in many different ways. This goes without saying… go for the ones without the higher sugar content in them.

Conclusion

Protein deficiency among Vegetarians & Vegans is very real. Nonetheless these 10 options will soon put an end to that, or improve your health even without having anything wrong with you at all.

This is also fantastic for anyone who has only just started eating like this, and was unsure what the best things to eat were.  

That’s It!

I really enjoyed sharing this with you guys.  Please do let me know though…

What do you make of all this?

What are your favourite Vegetarian/Vegan dishes ?

What food listed are you going to try first ?

Of course Any other questions are always welcome just leave a comment below

Until Then Ciao

We Look Up 大 

Karim David

-The Healthy One