Seitan is perfect for you: full of protein, low in carbs and calories.
Nowadays, if you’re trying to lose weight, you’re probably on a diet. You might persevere with your diet, making major changes to your lifestyle and letting the diet gradually become part of your routine. Or you might follow a diet for just a short period of time, by meeting certain requirements and giving your body a boost for both weight-loss and health. These days you often read about protein diets and low-carb diets.
What is a protein diet? Lots of protein is ideal for weight loss
Contrary to what the name suggests, in a protein diet you eat lots of protein. Protein helps you burn fat without affecting muscle mass. In a protein diet, you try to avoid carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, sugar, bread, potatoes and alcohol.
What foods are high in protein?
Eggs, of course, but also seitan, peas, lentils and hemp seeds. Meat and fish also contain large amounts of protein, but if you’re a vegetarian, it’s better to opt for a good meat and fish substitute. So seitan is the perfect ingredient for meals in a protein diet.
If you’re on a protein diet, you often lose a lot of weight in a short time. It’s also important to be aware that, at the start, you’ll lose quite a lot of fluids. So if you have problems with fluid retention, a protein diet would be great for you. Many proteins are also involved in preventing fluctuations in your blood sugar levels. This means that a high-protein diet could produce good results for people with diabetes.
What is a low-carb diet?
Losing weight by cutting down on carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are your body’s energy supply; it’s an umbrella term for a range of sugars and starch. Your body converts these into the glucose we use to function, but when there’s a surplus of glucose, your body turns it into fat. If you’re trying to lose weight, you’d prefer that it didn’t.
In a low-carb diet, you try to consume as few carbohydrates as possible. Carbohydrates are primarily found in rice, pasta, sugar, bread, potatoes and alcohol. Some people see carbohydrates as the enemy of weight loss, although opinions on this topic vary. However, there have been many studies which show that following a low-carb diet is more effective than following a diet in which you have to massively reduce the number of calories you eat. Of course, as with any diet, it’s important that you also get enough exercise. With a low-carb diet and a healthy lifestyle, it’s possible to lose as much as five kilos in ten weeks.
The difference between a low-carb diet and a protein diet
In a protein diet, you eat products which are primarily high in protein – sometimes this even includes products which have been enriched with protein. High-protein products are almost always low in carbohydrates. However, low-carb products are not always high in protein. This is the crucial difference. Seitan is perfect for both diets, because it’s both low in carbohydrates and high in protein.
Seitan is perfect for a low-carb diet or a protein diet
Seitan is a low-calorie source of protein which leaves you feeling full. This is important for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, because it reduces your cravings for snacks between meals. Bertyn seitan is organic and authentic, so it’s perfect to cook as part of a protein diet. Around 83% of the kilocalories in seitan come from complete proteins. Bertyn seitan also contains very few carbohydrates from fat – about 1.5%. In general, Bertyn seitan contains between 90 and 118 kcal per 100 grams.
Sources for more info
Culture, Youth, Sport and Media Policy Area www.cjsm.be
Men’s Fitness health magazine www.mensfitness.com
EVA (a vegetarian association in Belgium)
Research by Peter W.R. Lemon, Ph.D. Nutrition and Exercise Laboratory, University of Western Ontario, ON, Canada
