If you’re a carb counter and looking for a great way to shave some starchy ones out of your diet, get crazy for cauliflower.
Halley Todd is a lot more careful about her diet today than just last year.
Todd said, “So I went to graduate school and during my time in graduate school it was really stressful and I gained some weight.”
No, Halley’s not dropping those 20 graduate-school pounds with mashed potatoes. She and a lot of carb counters are getting crazy for cauliflower.
Lori Brizee, MS, RDN, LD, Nutritionist and Dietitian at Central Oregon Nutrition Consultants told Ivanhoe, “About a cup of cauliflower that’s cooked is gonna be around 25 calories where a cup of potatoes, which are far more dense, is going to be around 200 calories.”
Mashed … raw … or roasted … cauliflower is low in calories and packed with vitamin c. And a medium-sized head of cauliflower, which can serve several people, has fewer carbs than a single potato.
“I love cauliflower! I actually eat it a lot. Sometimes for lunch I’ll just take cauliflower and hummus,” said Todd.
One problem with cauliflower, at least this year: bad weather damaged this season’s crop, driving prices up considerably.
Brizee urges her clients to add cauliflower and other vegetables to potatoes as a low calorie way to fortify their meals and serving sizes.
“It’s a cruciferous vegetable. And we know the compounds in cruciferous vegetables actually help prevent cancer and heart disease,” Brizee told Ivanhoe.
Halley’s a believer. Cauliflower is partly responsible for her successful post-graduate school weight loss.
Cauliflower even attracted the attention of one of America’s great authors. Mark twain called it “nothing but a cabbage with a college education.”
