Crunchy home-made granola with flax, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and sweetened with maple syrup.
If you are in the market for a new granola recipe let me share with you this simple Autumn inspired Pumpkin Spice Granola recipe that has been an amazing addition to my meal preparation.
Granola is one of those foods that is super simple to prepare and tastes incredible when homemade. Lots of the store bought granolas have ingredients for freshness and added refined sugars. While this pumpkin spice granola is just sweet enough, loaded with healthy nutrients and will fill the house with an amazing aroma.
Nutrition 101: What’s the deal with sugar?
What is sugar?
Carbohydrate’s are forms of sugars, depending on the chemical structure carbs could be considered monosaccharides or disaccharides, which means the sugars in their simplest form so they are digested very quickly or oligo-saccharides and polysaccharides from high fiber grains and starchy vegetables are digested slowly.
Whole food sources of carbohydrates can be really beneficial to providing energy to muscle, brain, liver and kidney functions. While simple sugars that are from refined sources like table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and cane sugar (to name a few) are stripped of nutrients during processing, digest rapidly and can cause spikes in blood glucose especially when consumed in excess regularly.
What happens when we over do the sugar?
Sugar is an ingredient that is often added to food products- for means of taste but when it comes to health, consuming sugars in excess can lead to inflammation, which is the root of unwanted conditions.
5 reasons to lower your daily sugar intake
- Clear Skin : research supports that foods which are high glycemic like sugar can worsen acne since sugar can stimulate insulin growth factor which stimulates the production of oil glands, androgen and inflammatory markers, a combination which can lead to acne.
- Energy Balancing : reducing refined sugars, and pairing carbohydrates with protein, fat and fiber will provide a better effect on blood sugar and insulin release for stable energy throughout the day.
- Improve Mood: lowering sugar, while consuming whole foods can result in better mental health status, related to the potential reductions in inflammation.
- Protect the Heart: prevent the build of plaque on artery walls, an underlying cause for heart disease.
- Manage Hunger: consuming too much sugar can lead to a resistance to the hormone leptin, which sends the fullness signal.
Let’s Get Baking
This Pumpkin Spice Granola recipe is low in added sugars, while still sweetened and flavored with lots of anti-inflammatory spices.
How to Eat:
- Pour over cashew milk and eat with a spoon for cereal
- Sprinkle onto of a yogurt bowl
- Take it to go and eat au naturale
Pumpkin Spice Granola
Ingredients
- 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/3 cup flax seed, ground
- 2 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp. ginger
- 1/4 tsp. cloves
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven 350°F, line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In large bowl combine all ingredients stir with a spatula, spread mixture evenly onto baking sheet.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
- Enjoy!
Resources
Kivimäki, M.(2014). Long-term inflammation increases risk of common mental disorder: a cohort study. Molecular psychiatry.
Matsui, MS. (2019). Update on Diet and Acne. New York. Department of Dermatology, Columbia University.
Seneff, S. (2011). Is the metabolic syndrome caused by a high fructose, and relatively low fat, low cholesterol diet?. Archives of medical science : AMS.
Forsythe, C.E. (2008). Comparison of Low Fat and Low Carbohydrate Diets on Circulating Fatty Acid Composition and Markers of Inflammation. Lipids.
Vasselli, J. R. (2013). Dietary components in the development of leptin resistance. Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.).
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