This morning, I enjoyed my coffee in a thundery gray morning with a warm oatmeal raisin breakfast cookie. That I made up. :)
It's delicious, healthy and not low in fat.
For the past few months, I have been trying to focus on healthy fats in our diet.
I think it's a mistake that our culture sweepingly preaches eating a low-fat diet.
Maybe if you have a lot of weight to lose this could be a good choice for a short time...
But the truth is, when you're going low-fat, you're often eating a lot of "fillers".
We already eat only whole grains (yes, even for pasta - I am a nazi!)
and alot of fibrous fruits and veggies.
But last month I started really paying attention to what was holding my foods together
if it wasn't natural oil...
And what I personally discovered, is that for processed food
you're replacing those oils with HFCS, starches, or totally unpronounceable words.
And for unprocessed food, the absence of fat causes you to eat a lot more starches and sugars.
And fat is important for you!
It enables your body to absorb nutrients, for one thing.
It's good for your brain, skin, hair and nails for another.
Fat is incredibly valuable for growing babies and women in their childbearing years.
I just saw this on Twitter:
@EatThisNotThat:
"DON'T GO FAT FREE:
In a recent study,
people who ate "low fat" had the same risk of being overweight
as those who ate what they wanted!"
I think it's true.
In the past two months of making sure we were consuming
healthy organic oils...
avocado, coconut, olive oil,
organic butter, nuts, milled flaxseed, whole organic dairy,
and grass-fed beef (instead of the non-organic and processed ground turkey I used to get)...
I have not gained a single pound.
[Not sharing any of this to brag -
just on the chance that anyone is reading this who is afraid,
like I was, that eating more fat will make them fat!
I was pleasantly surprised lol]
In fact, if anything, I believe my metabolism became faster...
I am always hungry
(I used to feel bloated all day and was barely hungry for 3 meals,
and now I have to eat at least 5 times to stay relatively full).
Furthermore, Will's hair become silky and really shiny with the small diet change. Pretty much right away.
Anyways... Back to these breakfast cookies...
They were the solution to the processed, low-fat, high in sugar Clif Bar addiction
of mine and Jason's.
Maybe this will make us sound lazy in the mornings,
but I found that I couldn't get Jason to eat breakfast
if I didn't have something to hand him in a napkin
with his refill of coffee
as he rushed out the door.
I had saved the lid of the last Quaker Oats I bought
(which was awhile ago since I found pretty cheap organic oats at Trader Joe's),
and used the Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
recipe on there as a "guideline".
I replaced the butter with
organic coconut oil,
used only whole wheat flour (substituting 1/2 cup of it with cold-milled flaxseed),
and cut the sugar in half...
[You don't miss the sugar at all - maybe from the natural sweetness of the coconut oil? - and take my word for it, I have an accursed sweet tooth!]
We freeze them in baggies for the week. They are so tasty and very filling.
Awesome on-the-go breakfast.
(please excuse my disgusting post-run self-portrait. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you can smell the sweat through your computer screen).
So! That is my new morning fuel food of choice.
I am by no means an expert, but I really encourage anyone who is health-conscious
to start reading about the benefits of certain fats and oils,
and make sure you're getting enough of them in your diet.
I'm guessing you will realize, as I did, that you're definitely not getting enough.
It could just be my own weird experience
that adding fat and oil improved my physical feeling of wellness,
but its worth the experiment, right?
Although I will admit, I can't give up my obsession with Yoforia (organic lowfat Stoneyfield frozen yogurt).
Life is too short for that deprivation.
Labels: coconut oil, cooking, food, organic, something good
