How To Add & Not Subtract When It Comes To Eating Healthy
by team nuut
Do your maths for a wholesome diet, along with vegan protein powder, for a healthy, thriving body.
Ever gone on a drastic health kick to lose weight but, by day 3, tossed in the towel? Join the club. Research puts it down to excessive focus on what we shouldn’t eat or what should be removed from our diets. Yet, the best way to make sustainable change is to ADD.
ADD what, you say?
Just say you are craving pancakes for breakfast but want to be healthy. Rather than not eat them, make them healthy. ADD nutritious toppings like Greek yogurt, peanut butter and honey for protein, nuts for health, bananas for fibre and a sprinkling of nuut vegan protein powder for over a third of your daily nutritional requirements.
Sounds easy (and delicious), right? It is! Here are some equally tasty ways to ADD rather than subtract for a healthy regime that’s easy to stick to.
TIP 1
Add Protein + Fat To Breakfast
Protein at breakfast helps keep blood sugar and energy stable and, along with healthy carbohydrates and fats, provides a more prolonged energy boost by regulating your blood sugar.
Take a plant-based nuut blend and ADD carb-rich oatmeal, almond butter and avocado for good fats. Oats contain many beneficial nutrients, including fibre and protein, and studies have also shown that eating oats lowers blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
Or take an egg, which contains around six grams of protein and amino acids, which helps with weight management, increases muscle mass, lowers blood pressure and strengthens bones. Feel like more than just an egg? ADD avocado, nutty wholegrain toast and a sprinkle of dukkah for a stronger immune system and to help eliminate free radicals in the body, regulate cholesterol levels, and prevent high blood pressure.
While extra toppings add calories, they also provide significant nutrients that help keep you full, so you aren’t hit with cravings, which is excellent for weight loss and your health. Snack foods cause weight gain, studies have found, with 71% of food and beverages found to be ultra-processed.
TIP 2
Add Carbs To Lunch
Come lunchtime, are you dodging bread, pasta and rice to avoid the carbs? Yep! Well, get ready for a surge of severe sugar cravings at 3 pm. Argh!
Carbs, short for carbohydrates, are one of the big three macronutrients; the other two are protein and fat. They are all crucial for good health and weight management.
If you're trying to run a fast, efficient metabolism, frontload your carb intake at breakfast and lunch and taper it back throughout the afternoon, so you are snacking on fruit and vegetables rather than chocolate when the munchies hit.
Foods containing nourishing carbs that are part of a healthy diet include:
• Beans
• Lentils
• Milk
• Yogurt
• Corn
• Berries
• Oats
• Apples
• Brown rice
• Potatoes (white and sweet)
• Black beans
• Quinoa
TIP 3
Add an Afternoon Snack
Most of us feel snacky by at least 3 pm, and resisting the urge to eat or drink something satisfying only ends in low blood sugar, which can make you feel irritable and fatigued. The body begins to increase the production of cortisol, leaving you feeling hangry while skipping meals also slows down your metabolism, making it harder to lose weight.
Try some of our favourite snack recipes or make a nuut vegan protein shake. When you're short on time, a plant-based protein shake is a great, on-the-go option, and the high protein content will leave you feeling fuller for longer. Add our vegan protein powder to almond milk, hemp seeds, half a banana and a date, then blitz. It tastes like a salted caramel milkshake and will keep you going until dinner!
TIP 4
Add Veggies To Your Meals
Even if you like eating veggies, it can be hard to eat the recommended servings each day. And when a craving for spaghetti carbonara calls, it’s tough to ignore it and eat a bowl full of green beans instead.
Luckily, it’s easy to sneak veggies into any meal. Here are some of our favourite ways:
• Add minced broccoli to scrambled eggs
• Poach veggies in low-sodium chicken broth and white wine
• Smuggle fresh-cut vegetables into any main dish
• Ditch the meat and cook zucchini lasagne instead
• Always include a side salad with dinner
• Eat fruit (fresh, frozen, stewed or baked) for dessert
• Cook a veggie omelette for dinner
• Drink one glass of unsweetened 100% veg juice, including the natural pulp for fibre
• Experiment with veggie noodles
• Make savoury oatmeal for dinner with mushrooms, leeks and kale
• Make a cauliflower pizza crust
A team nuut tip! Top your favourite pasta dish with wilted baby spinach. Simply toss in a pan with a dash of water and close the lid for a few minutes or microwave for 30 to 45 seconds on high. Simple!
Shakes made with nuut vegan protein powder are the perfect place to smuggle in a few veggies. Add a handful of greens, avocado, or cauliflower, and pronto – you just upped your veggie ante!
TIP 5
Add 1 Extra Hour of Sleep Every Night
Clocking enough sleep makes healthy eating and efficient workouts so much easier. It also helps avoid the dreaded sugar cravings.
Most of us require between 7 and 9 hours of sleep every night to feel mentally and physically revitalised. The most important stage of sleep, deep sleep, is when the mind and body rest, recuperate and regenerate, which are critical for a thriving body and mind, so the longer you spend in that phase, the more time your body has to retune.
If you are not waking before your alarm, which research says is a sign that you have had enough sleep, then try and squeeze in an extra hour of sleep to see if you wake up feeling more rejuvenated.
Improving your diet through addition, not subtraction, is not only easy but super effective. Give it a go and start building healthy habits for long term success.