Can Muffins Be Healthy???

My good friend, and fellow dietitian, Laura Hunter MS, RD, turned my on to the F-Factor diet a few months ago. Now dietitians aren't usually fans of "diets," but this is really more a healthy way to eat emphasizing portion control and adding high fiber foods in to help you feel full and promote GI health (i.e. regular BMs!).

Fiber 101:

Basically, fiber is the part of the carbohydrate that isn't digestible. This is important because it means that it fills up your stomach without providing extra calories. There are two types of fiber - soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber absorbs water and swells in your stomach. It also absorbs cholesterol and pulls it out of your body. Insoluble fiber (aka roughage) acts as a scrub brush for the intestines. It helps speed up the passage of material through the digestive tract and helps reduce the risk of colon cancer.

Fiber Facts (From Tanya Zuckerbot MS, RD creator of the F-Factor diet):

- North Americans ate 10 times more fiber 100 years ago than they do today

-Fiber has zero calories

-Fiber is only found in Carbohydrates. Yet not all carbohydrates contain fiber

-High fiber foods provide long-term energy to your body because they are digested and processed more slowly than refined carbohydrates

-Only 1 in 5 American have an idea how much fiber they consume on a daily basis, and only about 1 in 4 know how many grams of fiber are recommended each day.

Now...finally, back to the title of this post - the muffins! On Sunday mornings I like to make the Blueberry Bran Muffin recipe from the back of the F-Factor book. We usually eat one muffin with some plain Greek yogurt and a cup of tea of coffee that morning, and then use them as a great, easy, portable and high fiber mid-morning snack the rest of the week. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cups All-Bran extra fiber cereal (I use Nature's Path Smart Bran Buds as an organic alternative)
1 1/4 cups 1% organic milk
1/2 cup honey
2 egg whites
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1 cup blueberries (OK to use frozen ones)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Stir together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. In a large bowl, mix cereal and milk. Let mixture stand for 2 minutes to allow cereal to soften.
4. beat egg whites and add to cereal mixture. Add honey, oil and lemon peel and stir to combine. Add the blueberries and then the dry ingredients and stir only until mixed.
5. Lightly spray muffin tin with cooking spray (use use paper liners). Pour batter into muffin pan and bake for 18-20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins
149 calories, 26 g carbohydrate, 6 grams of fiber, 4 g protein, 5 grams fat, 205 mg sodium