Photo: Dior
All my life I thought that being healthy meant abandoning your taste buds and shovelling food down your throat with a clothes pin on your nose.
All my “healthy” friends got by with boiled vegetables and brown bread, a meal that left them unsatisfied and irritable.
The name of the game seemed to be misery, so I figured I’d just eat delicious junk and enjoy my short life while I could.
But then I saw that Natlie Portman told Vogue about what she eats, and it got me thinking.
Portman told Vogue that she eats her weight in hummus every day, and credits the food for her good health. If Natalie Portman is as unbelievably hot as she is and she's eating that much of the stuff, then what's the deal with hummus?
Hummus seems to be an unholy monstrosity of impossible tastes and textures.
It’s smooth and creamy, rich and flavoursome. It tastes how I imagine pate was suppose to taste, instead of tasting like duck vomit. (I really don’t like pate).
I knew I liked hummus before having any idea what was inside, so I really expected it to be full of dairy. I expected cream, lots of oil and possibly meat of some kind.
So when I found out that’s its naturally vegan, I almost passed out.
Basic hummus is nothing more than;
chickpeas
extra virgin olive oil
lemon juice
salt
Some people like to jazz it up with nuts and other flavourings, but even on it’s own it somehow tastes incredible.
But best of all, this creamy goodness is actually really good for you! So let’s get into it.
Hummus is really rich in protein and iron, which is incredible news for vegans.
One of my closest friends is vegan, and she’s constantly iron deficient. She also throws back a lot of protein shakes because of how exhausted she’s always feeling, especially when she works out.
If she ate hummus, she could tackle both of these problems.
The iron content would help with her spooky complexion, and the protein would negate the need for all those high sugar, high preservative shakes she’s always drinking.
She could solve both her problems at once with a delicious and creamy spread, so what’s not to love?
Photo: Dior
According to the findings of a 2008 study by Jane Pittaway, hummus isn’t just a great source of fibre; our body is also able to absorb the fibre a lot more efficiently than with bread and cereal.
A lot of people turn to cereal when it comes to getting more dietary fibre, but they never consider how efficiently their body will be in actually absorbing and utilising the fibre.
A lot of what nutrients and minerals need to be properly absorbed are complimentary nutrients that help the body act more efficiently.
The study concluded that test subjects who undertook a chickpea based diet absorbed less fat and saw a dip in cholesterol compared to subjects who ate a bread and cereal based diet.
Perhaps the biggest reason of all for starting to eat more hummus may be the way it impacts our microbiome.
Hummus is rich in folate, which has been linked to promoting healthier levels of cell division within the colon. This means that is helps the colon digest more efficiently and repair itself at a better rate.
It’s also linked to fuelling the development of good bacteria along the digestive track. Fostering good bacteria growth is key to fixing a whole myriad of problems within the body.
Bacteria ecosystems in our gut have been linked to everything from cancers and infections, to mood and depression. Anything we can do to encourage the growth of good bacteria is going to have positive effects over our entire body and mind.
Hummus isn’t just delicious, it’s incredibly good for you and super easy to make.
You can easily add it into your daily eating habits by spreading it onto sandwiches, stirring it into pasta, and using it as a dip with chips.
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