Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Polenta crackers and low calories from raw food

Polenta/Semolina Crackers
Food Diary (January 03, 2012)
Breakfast: Toast with fried egg
Lunch: Vegetable fried ricce
Dinner: Pasta and chickpea soup

Polenta/semolina crackers, or you can call these homemade nachos, are very simple to make. When compared to the store bought nachos, these are much crisper and have very low fat. The recipe is available here.

Today's Favourite Photo
New Years Cake

Today’s Favourite Blog
Source: Forbes
Interesting article explaining why eating raw food can help in weight loss. Harvard scientists conducted research which found that cooking food increases the amount of energy or calories that it provides to your body. So eating raw food means less calories.  One reason is that  the body uses more energy in digesting raw food than it does cooked food. Cooked food has already been processed before its eaten so the body works less hard to digest it.

I saw a documentary sometime ago which concluded that one of the factors explaining evolution was cooking. As a result of cooking, our calorie intake increased, giving us more energy to do things that contributed to our evolution. Now some of us take in far more calorie than necessary. I wonder whether this will encourage further evolution, or take us backwards. 

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14 comments:

  1. Those polenta crackers look outstanding. Good info about the raw foods...with the calories I save eating my carrots raw, I can eat more snacks like your crackers!

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  2. No prizes for guessing what I'll be munching on soon! (not carrots)
    Whoa! That painted motif on the cake looks fabulous!
    Good article. As much as I love pretending to be a rabbit, I can't see myself going on this for long ... unless, maybe I have a roast beef dip or something to dunk into :D So much for starting the year healthy.

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  3. That cake is quite striking! I must have a closer look on their blog.

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  4. Happy New Year Mr. Three-Cookies! When I think of raw food, I thought of eating sashimi. Now is that high carolie? Well I hope it's still less calorie and I can lose some weight. Those polenta crackers look delicious!

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  5. Those crackers sound delicious! Any way to make nachos healthier, and I am IN.

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  6. wow excellent food blog with awesome picture I like your blog. Your blog is delicious like these food.

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  7. I love these crackers! They sound like my beloved nachos, but healthier. I must make them one day. Thanks for the wonderful idea!
    Now you have really surprised me with this raw food studies. Do they mean any way of cooking or do they say it just because cooking includes frying or baking/grilling with some use of fat? How can a food product increase the calories only by boiling for example... It sounds very intriguing.I have only heard that some vegetables (carrot for example) increase their glycemic index after being cooked...
    As for the good sides of raw food, I have also heard it's better to eat crunchy food that requires biting and chewing rather than very soft (baguette vs toast bread) and since most raw food products are crunchy... (unless we mix them).
    Even if I want to lose some holiday fat, it will be difficult to start a raw food diet in the Winter :-(

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  8. Lizzy: exactly, it balances out in the end!

    ping: since its not carrots I am guessing celery???:)
    Its difficult to eat only raw food, it does not fill you up and satisfy you. But I guess it’s a question of getting used to it. I am not there yet, and have no plans to go there either. Some raw food is good, some...

    Lorraine: it is, the site is not in English but I guess you found that out already. Google translate works miracles

    Nami: thank you, same to you. I think according to the article salmon etc would be higher calorie if cooked

    Joanne: they are!

    Sissi: any way of cooking. Cooking changes the structure of the food and makes it easier for the body to process and digest since cooking already processes it partially. As a result more of the food is digested/absorbed so the calorie intake is higher. I don’t know if the calorie content of the food changes after cooking but a higher amount is absorbed by the body. As an example I think if we ate raw potatoes the body will have to work harder and longer to digest it. If we eat cooked potato its more easily digested so more calorie is absorbed

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  9. Making crackers or nachos at home for some reason always fascinates me, they look great. And yes I say if we go back to raw food we will go backwards ;-)

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  10. Love those polenta crackers. Would be nice to serve with some feta dip!
    That new year cake looks amazing!

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  11. I love polenta and making them into crackers is just genius

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  12. one thing though, is that you can't absorb the nutrients as well from raw food. so say, a raw carrot vs a cooked one, a raw one probably has more vitamins but you would absorb far less from it than if you cooked it first! anyway, interesting read as always (:

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  13. Cheap Ethnic Eatz: hahaha, we reverse the evolution process!

    Angie: I am sure it would be great with feta dip

    Kitchen Belleicious: thank you

    Shu Han: good point, less calories and nutrients from raw food but they also have enzymes that cooked versions probably lack. I guess we should eat both then.

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  14. i love how simple and easy those crackers look! and i love raw foods, just wish they were easier on my tummy~

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