Quinoa has gained so much popularity in recent years. Particularly, people are preferring eating quinoa for weight loss. These tiny precious balls are full of health benefits and have become one of the best sources of protein and other important nutrients for vegetarians.
Vegetarians often have these common issues of not having many options for getting all 9 essentials amino acids from a single diet.
They either combine different veg food items to hit their daily protein requirement containing all 9 essentials amino acids or depend on protein sources like Vegan Whey Protein.
Quinoa for this reason has become very popular for people who are looking for some best veg sources of protein and other nutrients in a single food item.
Apart from protein-rich, it has a good content of fiber, magnesium, iron, potassium, calcium, etc.
Quinoa for weight loss with many health benefits
Now , let us see what are the health benefits of quinoa and why it is a perfect weight loss diet.
1. Gluten-free food for weight loss
Quinoa is gluten-free which makes it is a perfect diet for people who are gluten intolerant.
So, as a gluten-free food source quinoa can increase the nutrition value of your diet and antioxidant properties.
Many people want to avoid wheat, pasta, etc as they contain gluten and look for a diet that is free from gluten. Quinoa could be one of your best alternative to the gluten-free grain.
2. A fiber-rich diet for your diet plan
As compared to most of the grains available in the market, Quinoa is regarded as one of the best fiber-rich grain.
It has approximately 16 grams of fiber content in it per 100 grams that is much more than other fiber-rich grains.
The soluble fiber-content in Quinoa is approx 1.5 grams per 100 grams which are again rich enough.
So, if you are looking for something rich in fiber to add to your weight loss diet plan, Quinoa could be your best fit.
Here is the list of best fiber-rich food for vegetarians with a recipe: Fiber-rich Indian foods. Weight loss Recipe.
3. A protein-rich veg source containing all essential amino acids
For vegetarians, getting enough protein is a challenging task. Most people add a different combo of veg food to hit the target of consuming all 9 essential amino acids.
Eggs, meat, etc contains all essential amino acids and are the best source of protein for people. But, in countries like India where a majority of the population are vegetarians, getting enough protein sources with all essential amino acids is still a little difficult.
Soy, milk products, etc have the contents of all 9 essentials amino acids. But in recent years Quinoa has become another great choice for people to have plant-based protein.
Proteins are made of amino acids and the human body can produce some amino acids required for its growth. But some of the amino acids which are called 9 essentials amino acids are not produced by the human body and can be obtained from our diet.
Here is another great list for you to get sufficient proteins from different sources available.
- Best protein powder in India – Vegan whey protein list
- Best weighing machine in India 2021: Digital & analog
- Protein rich foods in India for vegetarians: Diet plan
Many plant-based food items lack these 9 essentials amino acids or complete protein. therefore, Quinoa becomes as one of the best and a few plant-based proteins to be called a complete protein.
Quinoa has approx. 8 grams of protein per 185 grams. So, do not forget to add quinoa to your weight loss diet if you are a vegetarian or vegan.
4. Rich in minerals: Magnesium, Iron, etc
People often ignore important minerals they should get from their diets and primarily focus on just having macronutrients like protein, carbs, fat, etc.
The good news is that Quinoa is also rich in minerals like iron and magnesium making your diet filled with other important nutrients.
Compared to other grains like wheat and corn, Quinoa has a greater content of magnesium in it.
If you are concerned about not having enough important minerals, like magnesium, zinc, iron, etc, adding quinoa can improve your diet with these important minerals.
On the negative side, it is also rich in oxalates which can cause problems for people suffering from kidney stones.
5. Quinoa: Rich in Antioxidant
Another great benefit of Quinoa is that it is high in antioxidants that are required to fight diseases.
As we know, antioxidants help in preventing deadly diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, etc. So, having an oxidant rich food like quinoa helps in preventing these diseases.
According to some research conducted on some cereals including quinoa, it was found that quinoa has the highest content of antioxidants as compared to other cereals.
Your weight loss goal should not be just losing weight but get all nutritional benefits from your weight loss diet. Antioxidant-rich food like quinoa makes your diet even healthier.
6. Quinoa: Helpful in weight loss
To be frank, quinoa directly does not help you lose weight but makes the weight loss process much easier for you.
Rich in fiber and proteins, makes quinoa helpful in controlling your hunger for a longer duration.
Weight loss happens when your diet works best on your hunger and makes you feel full consuming the required calories as per your diet plan.
A diet rich in proteins and fiber takes time to digest making you feel full and avoid unnecessary eating between your meal hours.
This is the reason people love adding quinoa to their diet to fight their hunger and at the same time get important nutrition from their food.
So, if you want to make your weight loss process friendly then quinoa may help you in weight loss.
7. Have rich nutrition profile: A weight loss-friendly seeds for your diet plan
Quinoa has a very impressive nutrition profile and this is why it is regarded as the mother of all grains.
These seeds are usually grown organically and comes in there different types: Red, white, and black.
According to Nutrition Data, 1 cup, or 185 grams of cooked quinoa has the following nutrition value as mentioned below:
- Protein: 8.1 grams
- Carbs: 39.4 grams
- Fiber: 5 grams
- Fat: 3.6 grams
- Magnesium: 118 mg
- Manganese: 1.2 mg
- Phosphorus: 281 mg
- Potassium: 318 mg
- Iron: 2.8 mg
- Zinc: 2.0 mg
Total calories in 185 grams of cooked quinoa have approx. 222 calories
If you see the recommended daily allowance (RDA or %DV), quinoa having magnesium approx. 118 mg counts for 30% RDA and Maganese counts for approx. 58% of RDA.
Same way, Phosphorus, Iron and Zinc counts for approx. 28%, 15%, and 13% of the RDA respectively.
So, again quinoa has proved that it could be your best weight loss diet to put in your diet plan. The rich nutrition profile makes it a very weight loss friendly and a healthy diet which can be incorporated into your diet easily
8. Quinoa keeps your gut healthy
Because of the prebiotics content in Quinoa, it is regarded as good food for a healthy gut. These prebiotics is used by good bacteria in the guts and improve digestion.
In weight loss, it is very important for people to have a healthy diet which does not create a problem in digesting it. Therefore, consuming quinoa may improve your digestion making your guts healthy.
9. Quinoa is easy to add to your weight loss diet
This is another reason why people like adding Quinoa to their weight loss diets. Quinoa is easy to incorporate into your diets and there are a variety of easy weight loss quinoa recipes you can try with.
It has a very neutral taste and thus, you can add different stuff to make the quinoa recipes taste unique with every stuff you add.
Some of the common ways of adding quinoa to weight loss diets are:
- Quinoa smoothies
- Quinoa in salad
- Quinoa soups
- Quinoa daliya
- Quinoa pudding
- Quinoa poha
The common process before making any quinoa recipes is to rinse them properly to get rid of the bitter taste because of saponins found in the outer layer.
Find the list of some of the best weight loss friendly recipes you can try today:
- 5 Indian breakfasts for weight loss.
- Moong dal chilla recipe
- Homemade protein shake for weight loss
- Beetroot juice for weight loss: Carrot-apple miracle juice
10. Good source of vitamins
Quinoa is a good source of vitamins and has a high content of vitamin B6. As compared to wheat it has much more vitamin content in it.
Quinoa has over 10% of the RDA for vitamins B1, B2, and B6. 100 grams of quinoa has 80% and 40% of a child’s and adult’s vitamin B2 requirements respectively.
Quinoa upma weight loss recipe
Once you have known the benefits of Quinoa, it’s time to prepare some healthy and tasty quinoa recipes for your weight loss diet plan.
You can have a variety of diet recipes with quinoa. To name some, you can prepare quinoa veggies khichdi, quinoa upma, quinoa healthy drinks, quinoa salad, etc.
Today, I am going to share my version of the quinoa weight loss recipe that you can include in your diet plan.
The recipe that I am going to share today is called Quinoa Upma.
The best part with this recipe is that you can add as many veggies as you want to make it an even more weight loss-friendly diet.
Find the list of ingredients below and later move on reading the prepration method.
Ingredients for quinoa upma (2 servings)
- Quinoa: 0.5 cup
- Carrot: 1 medium size, finely chopped
- Capsicum: 1/3 cup, finely chopped
- Green beans: 1/3, finely chopped
- Onion: 1 medium size, finely chopped
- Green peas: 1/3 cups, finely chopped
- Green chilies: 1 tsp, finely chopped
- Ginger: 0.5 tsp finely chopped
- Roasted peanuts: 1 tbsp
- Urad dal: 1/2 tsp urad dal
- Ghee/mustard oil/olive oil: 1.5 tbsp
- Turmeric: 1 tsp
- Black pepper: 0.5 tsp
- Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
- Curry leaves: 5 to 6 leaves
- Lemon juice: 1 tsp
- Coriander leaves: 1 tbsp
- Water as required
- Salt to taste
Preparation method of quinoa upma
- Take quinoa in a strainer and rinse properly in running water to remove its natural coating. Keep the quinoa aside
- Now, take a pan and heat the oil
- Once the oil is heated, add mustard seeds until they start crackling
- Now add urad dal, stir fry on a low flame till they turn golden brown
- Then add finely chopped ginger, curry leaves, and green chilies, saute them well
- Now add chopped onions, saute them on a medium flame till they start turning golden brown
- Now add all your veggies one by one, and mix well
- Now, add turmeric, salt, black pepper, mix everything well and cook all the veggies properly
- It’s time to add quinoa into the mixture and stir everything well on a low flame.
- Now add the required amount of water, stir well, and cover the pan with a lid to simmer the quinoa. (You can add about 2 cups of water for 1 cup of quinoa)
- Check for water consistency and salt, adjust the amount if needed
- If required, cover the pan and cook on a low flame till the quinoa turns softer
- Finally, open the lid and check if all the water has been absorbed properly
- Now switch off the flame, add lemon juice and coriander leaves. Your quinoa upma weight loss recipe is ready.
Nutrition profile of plain quinoa upma and total calories in 100 grams serving
100 grams of plain quinoa upma contains 120 calories in which you get 4.4 grams protein, 21 grams of carbs, and 2 grams of fat.
| Quinoa upma Nutrition (per 100 grams serving) | Calories detail (*) |
| Protein | 4.4 gram |
| Carbs | 21 grams |
| Fat | 2 grams |
| Total calories (per 100 grams) | 120 calories |
- Preparation time: 15 minutes
- Cook time: 25 minutes
- Total time: 35 minutes
Conclusion
Quinoa is known for many health benefits and recently gain much popularity as a healthy diet. You can take advantage of these many nutritional benefits that quinoa offers by adding into your diet.
Before adding quinoa into your weight loss diet or consuming it make sure to discuss with your dietician or any medical experts. No food works the same for all and its effects depend on several human body and medical factors. So, it always advisable to take the opinion from any authorized dietician before consuming it.
Disclaimer: The information given in this article should not be considered as a final recommendation. It is always a good practice to consult authorized medical experts before following any tips or information shared on this website. Some of the data in this article are collected by a well-reputed website like NutritionData. For reference, websites such as healthline.com and Wikipedia are used.