Your thoughts on Teff flour

[swickstrom]

Jeff,

I was a part of the CTL 8 day session last week, so I wanted to start by saying thank you to you and the rest of the McDougall crew. Returning home the wife and kids have tons of questions and want to know everything I learned. Of course I only remember about 10% of what was shared so I'm not leveraging the website, FB page, YouTube vids, etc. to fill in the gaps and help educate them. It will be a process I'm sure but we're not set on perfection, just improvement.

Now for the questions - My wife was born in Ethiopia and our entire family LOVES Ethiopian food. The good news is there are typically lots and lots of veggies and the bread (injera) is made with teff vs. white flour. The bad news is every traditional recipe calls for 4x sticks of butter, minimum and many have meat. Being proactive, my wife has already found a ton of Ethiopian recipes that don't have meat, oil or butter.

What I wasn't sure about was the injera and/or teff flour? What are your thoughts, recommendations when it comes to teff or injera. We know the injera is made with just teff, water and yeast so my concerns might be "calorie dense" or maybe just little/no nutritional value. If that's the case maybe we're better off eating the dishes with a baked potato or some brown rice.

We'd love your thoughts

thanks,
Scott

[JeffN]

Jeff, I was a part of the CTL 8 day session last week, so I wanted to start by saying thank you to you and the rest of the McDougall crew.

Thank you.

Returning home the wife and kids have tons of questions and want to know everything I learned. Of course I only remember about 10% of what was shared so I'm not leveraging the website, FB page, YouTube vids, etc. to fill in the gaps and help educate them. It will be a process I'm sure but we're not set on perfection, just improvement.

Great! That is why we created all these free resources.

Now for the questions - My wife was born in Ethiopia and our entire family LOVES Ethiopian food. The good news is there are typically lots and lots of veggies and the bread (injera) is made with teff vs. white flour. The bad news is every traditional recipe calls for 4x sticks of butter, minimum and many have meat. Being proactive, my wife has already found a ton of Ethiopian recipes that don't have meat, oil or butter.

What I wasn't sure about was the injera and/or teff flour? What are your thoughts, recommendations when it comes to teff or injera. We know the injera is made with just teff, water and yeast so my concerns might be "calorie dense" or maybe just little/no nutritional value. If that's the case maybe we're better off eating the dishes with a baked potato or some brown rice.

Teff is an excellent whole grain and can be consumed as such, like whole grain rice, corn etc. When made into a flour and then into bread (Injera), it is more calorie dense. So, two things, 1) make sure you buy whole grain teff or whole grain teff flour and 2) be aware the bread is calorie dense. If you are not used to it, the whole grain will also have a richer flavor that may take some adjustment.

You can find whole grain teff at some of the companies we mentioned including Bob's Red Mill, Vitacost, Amazon etc.

https://www.bobsredmill.com/catalogsear ... lt/?q=teff

Also remember that many people will do just fine, including in regard to weight, with the regular program that allows some of the more calorie dense foods (bread products, dried fruit, etc). For those who need more help in weight management, we have the Maximum Weight Loss which avoids the calorie dense products. So you will have to experiment a little to find your sweet spot.

Here is the really good news. John and Mary McDougall invited a friend of theirs, who is a fairly renowned chef, to create a full Ethiopian dinner at one of our 3 Day Programs that was McDougall compliant. Here is a PDF to all the recipes from that evening

Ethiopian Cuisine
Dr. McDougall's Health and Medical Center
September 8, 2012
https://www.drmcdougall.com/pdf/Advance ... s_9-12.pdf

I was there that night and as someone who loves Ethiopian cuisine, this was excellent.

Keep in touch and let me know how you like the recipes

In Health
Jeff

[swickstrom]

Jeff,
Amazing stuff. Molly posted our first Ethiopian meal on the CTL Facebook page and I saw you commented. It was a huge success and we still have tons of different things to try / add. This will definitely be one of the staples in my family's diet. Thanks for all the feedback, tips and additional insight.