calcium Archives - Olea Nutrition

What do you make when you have one little zucchini, a couple stalks of asparagus and a few sprigs of dill? Well, not much at first. But with a few eggs, a splash of milk and a bit of cheese you have the makings of a great looking quiche!

I happened to have a frozen pie crust in my freezer or else this would have turned into a frittata. Yes, a frittata is literally a quiche with no crust, so if you’re looking for a low carb version of this (although I don’t know why you would), just omit the crust and you have a tasty frittata!

Now, quiche is one of those dishes that I feel most people think that it is a dish reserved for tiny cute French bistros but it is so easy! Providing you use my pie crust cheat of course.

Onwards!

So I needed to use up a couple leftover veggies before they headed to the compost so seeing as though quiche/frittata is one of the best “pantry” dishes, where you can literally throw whatever your crisper contains and it will be amazing, I thought, yes, quiche! With a little dill, a little feta (always makes it betta 🤣), should be a solid dish!

First, chop up your veg and sauté to take the rawness out and set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk up 3 eggs and 1 cup milk. Shred 1 cup of cheddar cheese (I also added 1/4 cup feta on top). Take out your pie crust from the freezer to thaw a touch. Sprinkle half your cheese in the bottom of pie crust and add cooked veggies on top of cheese.

Sprinkle the rest of your cheese on top and pour egg/milk mixture into pie crust.

Place quiche on a baking sheet and bake in an oven preheated to 425F for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 350F and cook for another 30-35 minutes until egg mixture is set. You can test doneness by poking a toothpick in the center and if it comes out clean it’s all done!

The beauty of this recipe is that you can keep the egg/milk/cheese mixture the same and change up the veggies for anything! I’ve done wild mushroom, turkey bacon and Swiss; for a Mediterranean flava, sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, Kalamata olives and feta or this beauty with zucchini and asparagus. Experiment with whatever you have!

ENJOY!

Love your yogurt? Now you have another reason to love it even more! New research shows that consumption of yogurt over other dairy sources is consistently linked with a reduced risk for type 2 diabetes, as shown in BMC Medicine.

As if you needed another reason to love yogurt even more – it’s creamy, tangy, protein and probiotic-packed, a perfect breakfast or snack food and now research is showing that it also protects you from developing type 2 diabetes (T2D).

On top of its deliciousness, yogurt is a natural superfood, with its high levels of calcium, protein, vitamin D and probiotics, yogurt is a perfect food source for bone health and gut health and is an ideal dairy source for those with lactose intolerance. Now we can add that eating yogurt protects against type 2 diabetes to the list as well!

New research published in the journal of BMC Medicine from a group of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health aimed to investigate whether total dairy intake as well as individual dairy sources were linked to incidence of type 2 diabetes. They followed a total of just under 195,000 people over the course of 30 years from 3 large prospective cohort studies, of which 15,156 cases of type 2 diabetes were documented. Total diet and dairy consumption was reported via food frequency diet questionnaires and was compared to overall type 2 diabetes incidence.

It was found that although total dairy consumption, which includes skim or whole milk, ice cream, cheeses, cream and yogurt, was not linked to a risk of T2D, when yogurt alone was tested, it was significantly associated with a lower risk of T2D.

The lowered incidence of T2D with yogurt consumption reported may be explained by the presence of probiotic bacteria in yogurt, as it as been shown that probiotic bacteria improves lipid and cholesterol levels and antioxidant status in T2D patients. This in conjunction with the bioactive components in all dairy products, such as calcium, vitamin D, magnesium and milk proteins, may contribute collectively to the improved blood glucose control observed in this study over other dairy products.

Now, you may be wondering what other ways can I incorporate yogurt in my diet besides the typical snack or breakfast food? Yogurt is an easy and healthy substitute for other typical high-fat dairy products that you may not have thought of before, without sacrificing flavor or texture. I like to keep a good stock of plain Greek yogurt on hand, since it’s so versatile and can be easily sweetened with natural honey versus those other processed, artifically sweetened pods!

Use plain yogurt instead of:

-Sour cream (for dips, tacos, chili, etc)
-Mayo (for dips)
-Heavy cream (when you want to add creaminess to recipes)
-Oil (in baking)
-Flavored fruit-bottom yogurt (sweeten with honey and add your own fruit!)
-Experiment and enjoy! You can’t go wrong!

Bottom line: Higher consumption of yogurt is associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

Source: Chen, M et al. BMC Medicine. 2014.

Zucchini asparagus dill and feta quiche

Eating yogurt linked with reduced diabetes risk