DJ Koula pops the muesli myth

“We wanted to prove that ordinary people can run the Comrades. It's not just for those who are genetically superior,” she says.

But running 10km five times a week has had an interesting effect on her appetite.

While shooting an episode of All Access, the lifestyle programme she co hosts which premiers today at 7:30pm on M-Net, the camera crew was amused by how much she ate. “We shot the episode just before this year's Comrades, so I was eating quite a lot at that time. The crew members said they had never seen a TV presenter eat so much.”

Ironically, muesli is not one of her favourite meals when carbo-loading.

She explains why: “People make the mistake of thinking that muesli is healthy, when it actually all depends on what's in it — anything with 3g of fat per 100g is unhealthy.”

The first muesli she tries is Vital. “This is very healthy. It has no chocolate or sugar coating. It's probably the healthiest, but if I were to eat muesli, I would want it sweeter than this. It has a low glycaemic index (GI), though, so it would be good for runners.”

The next brand, Energy Crunch, is from the Jungle range. “I like the raisins in this one and I like the fact that it has more taste than the previous one.”

The third muesli is the Bokomo Luxury Berry Muesli. “Hmmm, this reminds me of being a kid. I used to eat a pink cereal that would turn the milk pink as well. It isn't healthy, but it definitely is yummy.”

The last muesli she tries, Simply Cereal Honey and Almond Muesli, has a tough act to follow. “It doesn't taste like muesli. It has some cereal in it and it's also not a healthy option,” Koula says.

Preferring to have a slice of low GI toasted bread with banana and peanut butter or avocado and tomato for breakfast, Koula is not that keen on cereals and muesli. But she declares that if she had to choose, nostalgia would trump health and the Luxury Berry Muesli from Bokomo would win the muesli marathon.

Source: The Times

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