What's for breakfast? Well, we all search for healthy breakfast choices, but most of us get stuck on narrowing down the search to identify that one item that is a combination of some good proteins and healthy variants.
Mostly oatmeal is praised and recommended for being high in fiber, low in calories and rich in various nutrients. However, there is one more food item that can give tough competition to oatmeal in terms of being healthy and that is grits.
To put it quite simply, Grits are nothing but just small broken grains of corn. According to The Food Lover’s Companion, it means the hominy grits and is just a broken down short form of pronunciation. According to the guide, hominy was the first food product that Native Americans gifted to the colonist. This dried corn kennel after the removal of hull and germs is grounded to form grit.
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Grits come from corn and undergo a certain procedure before it takes its final shape. The process begins with drying the corn thoroughly till the time it only has 14% moisture left in it. After this, each kernel undergoes a procedure of being cleaned with forced air. Further on, to ground it and bring it to its final texture, it is run through the mill stone. Following which, it is sorted into three categories; white corn meal, white corn grits and the bran that comes off. The final product though contains fine bran which does not soften after cooking and can be removed before cooking by rinsing it off with water.
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While oatmeal has always been the preferred choice of food of all nutritionist, grit is far superior in terms of being a healthy food option. While a cup of cooked grit has 182 calories and 1 gram of fat which is a total of 9 calories, oatmeal instead has 166 calories, 3 grams of fat in equal servings which make it a total of somewhat 27 fat calories. This figure is further enhanced by the salt, sugar, butter, and milk that is used in the preparation of the cereal.
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You can experiment and cook grits in many ways depending upon your personal choice. You can simmer them in water or even chicken stock or milk. Now, grits lack the flavor of their own and are pretty mild so you can add to that by putting in a bit of butter or cheese. There are also other variations like cheese grits and shrimp and grits that you can make to change the taste of the dish.
What is your favorite choice of healthy food? If it's the plain old oatmeal then you can experiment with it. Leave us feedback using the comment box below.
(Featured Image Courtesy: Odyssey Online)
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