The Key to Quinoa

Many people had no idea what quinoa was before 2012, until the FOA (Food and Agricultural Organization) named 2013 “the international year of quinoa.” Quinoa soon after became more popular and made it’s way out of the woodwork and into our diets. Quinoa, being so easy to prepare most people would think it doesn’t yield many healthy benefits, but it does. Possibly the most striking quinoa benefit would be it’s nutrient richness. Due to quinoa having significant amounts of lysine and isoleucine, it allows quinoa to serve as a complete protein source unlike most other grains; other grains are considered inadequate due to the lack in lysine, isoleucine and amino acids which quinoa overcomes.

When it comes to fat content, quinoa is considered to be one of the healthiest supportive fats for ones body. When in comparison to other whole-wheat alternatives, it takes approximately 350 calories to yield 1 gram of fat content. In contrast, it takes approximately only 63 calories to produce 1 gram of fat in quinoa (The World’s Healthiest Foods).

Lowering cholesterol levels is also on most peoples to do list. Animal studies have previously shown that sprouted quinoa helps maintain and lower HDL cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol) (The World’s Healthiest Foods). These results are expected to play the same roll on human bodies as well. The anti-inflammatory nutrients found in quinoa are also expected to protect human blood vessels. Protection such as this will also protect against cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. Moving forward in society, quinoa needs to be recognized a lot more for it’s benefits and positive change it can have on the human body.

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