Put your hands up if you are a fan of homics. I think it's safe to say that if we were all voting one of our favorite foods to sit down with a glass of wine, leanne, it would be perhaps a dip. And I know that homas is one of the most popular and a lot of people think that it's a pretty good weightless food. So today we thought it was time to take a closer look at this platter staple and figure out which one takes home the title of best homics that we can find at the supermarket.
Hi, I'm Susie Burrow and I'm Lean Wood.
And as to irustrate as leading dieticians, we bring you the Nutrition Couch Product Review, a weekly chat on new products and old favorites that you can find at the supermarket. Now, I think even to kick it off, and my even pronouncing it correctly, lean and I say homos.
That's how I say it? Is that right, Yeah, it's holmost. It's definitely homos. But I was going to say, if I'm sitting down to a glass of wine, my favorite food wouldn't be homos. It'd definitely be some cheese. We just covered cheese for that reason. I might add some homice who my cheese platter, but I wouldn't start with them. I must. Well.
I think we decided to talk about this because recently I appeared on the forty Podcasts with the Girls, and if you haven't listened to that, it's a fantastic podcast in general, and a great episode on perimenopause and diet changes.
And one of the big talking points was the girls finding out that homis is perhaps not I don't want to say not as healthy, but a lot highing calories than perhaps they might have thought, and polishing off a packet of rice crackers and a tub of homis could be one of the reasons you're not reaching your weight loss goals. So we thought, yes, absolutely, we know just from our base of listeners that there'll be a lot of people who are particularly interested in homos and I
do enjoy it myself. My dad really likes it, and so if he's coming over, I will go to the supermarket and get our favorite brand, which I won't declare on here because I don't want to skew anyone's view before we review all the products, but certainly I know dip in general is a huge growth area in the supermarket. Like I think back to when I grew up, the dip wasn't dip. There was the Philly cream cheese and.
That was it.
Now we have a huge number of dips in supermarket and coming into summer in particular when we are entertaining barbecues platters, I like to use a colorful dip like a beetroot homice on my platters because I love the purple color. But I know that a lot of our listeners will be really interested in this, and I love we've had a mix. I think you've chosen some of them in our fantastic student Amy has also helped us put these together. But I would have absolutely picked very
similar products in supermarkets. So I'm sure there'll be brands that everyone is very familiar with. So the first one that we're going to talk about today is the pil Pearl gluten free homice. Now, this is certainly a very strong brand in supermarkets. They've got a whole range. There's a beetroot dip, there's a capsicum one. The one we've chosen is the larger size. Today it's available at both Wulwiths and Coals. It retails for about six fifty it's
a reasonably large tub. The tub, the smaller one, which must be about one fifty two hundred, is not inexpensive either. It comes pretty close to five dollars. Now, the first thing I will say about homice is that, and we can discuss if we compare it.
I think we compare one hundred grams. What do you think?
Yeah?
Agree, yeah, Because on.
This label, for example, a serving is described as twenty grams, which is a small tablespoon. And I don't know anyone leanne who when they're serving dip or homas would stick to a tablespoon. But that's a whole other discussion. So we'll take a look at the ingredients first. So first of all, we've got cooked chickpeas, which is fifty three percent, so more than half the product is strong whole food legumes.
Tahini is the next ingredient, which assests me in salt, followed by water, extra virgin olive oil, very important part of what we're going to talk about today, and a citity regulator, and that's just to keep the flavors mixed and not too glug together for one of a better word, salt and preservative, potassium salt, so pretty what I would describe is a pretty clean ingredient list. Now people may
hear that and say, oh, it's got a preservative. Well, most packaged food will have some level of preservative or it will turn particularly cold food like this that the standout straight away is a really high percentage of cooked chickpeas fifty three percent, which is really high, and the gold standard extra virgin olive oil. Because i've reviewed dips in the past, many are based or average land. They're
based on cream, cheese, or vegetable oil. They're often the first or second ingredients across the board, which means you have processed foods which are very high and saturated fat or refined vegetable oils. This is one of the only brands, if the only one in supermarket that you can find with extra virgin olive oil, which also will explain part
of why it's more expensive than the others. You're basically paying for a better quality product because you're not only getting a really high percentage of chickpeas, but you're also getting extra virgin olive oil, which is much better nutrition there for us. So per one hundred grams, and we will compare that so we can compare across the three that we've chosen today. So keep in mind as well that this is only five tablespoons. Now I want you to think back to the last time you've sat down
with a container of homus. Keep in mind this container, for example, there's three hundred and fifty grams. That would be close to twenty tablespoons. Now I guarantee you would have eaten at least half, if not the whole tub. So it's actually incredibly easy to eat one hundred grams of homice. And that's one of the concerns or issues
I do have with it. Where my clients include it, they're not including a tablespoon, they're including half or a whole tub, and that's perhaps where their diets off track. So just be very very mindful of serves. So we'll look at the one hundred grams. So it's close to three hundred calories in just less than only a third of that tub, so not insignificant. It's got nine point seven grams of protein. Now it's safe to say, Leam that it's a common belief with clients that homas is
a protein. And I point out to my clients that it's more of a fat so if you eat a third of the tub, you get ten grams of protein, but that comes with a huge amount of fat or in this instance, close to twenty grams at nineteen point seven, so at least a third of your daily recommended intake of fat, admittedly low and saturated fat thanks to the tahmi which is coming from sesame and the extravergent olive oil, which is a major bonus when comparing dips to the
average kind of avocado, deer or one's based on as I said, cream, cheese, or vegetable oil. In the case of Pesto dips, eight point six grams of carbohydrate, minimal sugars, it doesn't have added sugar this brand four point nine grams of dietary fiber, so a little bit in there, but not really if you're having a couple of tablespoons and five hundred and four milligrams of sodium, not really insignificant,
particularly if you polish off the whole tub. But it is one of those kind of seasoned foods out there, so you will be getting some sodium, and it's made in Australia, which is really important. From at least seventy percent of Australian ingredients, So I'm pastent to say that things like the sess Tome are probably coming from overseas just because of supply chain issues in here in Australia. But in the whole, it's a very strong brand nutrition Lely.
It's one that I don't have any qualms recommending, but when I do give recommendations on Homus, we do have a very strong discussion about the serving size because I, as I said Lee, I recon my clients are having at least half that pot, if not the whole thing, when they are sitting.
Down to a couple of glasses of shardi on a Friday night. I love it. I recommend it. It's a great brand. Definitely agree with everything that you mentioned. But I think, as you keep saying, it's quite bunny because not only will our clients have homers, they'll actually perceive
that as being a super healthy kind of snack. So I have a lot of clients who get home after work, they're starting to prepare dinner, They're making the kids dinner instead of snacking up the kid's plates, which were like, hey, let's not really do that. It doesn't really support weight loss.
They'll make themselves a healthy snack, get out the rice crackers, get out the homers, overeat on that, and then go and have a big dinner and thinking that they've made a really healthy snack choice, and always give themselves permission to have a little something more after dinner because they've made a really healthy choice in terms of a dip. So nothing wrong with Homas, but as always, portion sizes are absolutely key. But I do love this brand. It
tastes great. It's got a really nice sort of smooth texture, and it's not too oily. Sometimes the Homases, particularly with the added vegetable earls, can be a little bit sort of oily and they don't make me feel great afterwards. But this is a really good quality brand, And like you, I love they have a garlic dip at a Beetrip dip as well, which is just delicious.
Yeah, just as an offside, they're actually my face in that brand. I love the beech Riot dip and the cap'scum. They're really quite low calorie if you can track them down. All right now, this mixed one's really interestingly in and I'm going to need your help with your nutritional science to explain it to me, because I'm thinking looking at it,
not quite sure what's going on. So this is another very well known brand in supermarkets, the Black Swan's Skinny Hommice Dip, so it's straight away marketing on that idea of being a lower fat product. It retails two hundred grams for four dollars, so it is less expensive slightly than the Pilpel brand per hundred grams. It does have significantly fewer calories. Keep in mind the Propel was two
fifty eight, so this is just shy. This is just on two hundred, so about fifty calories per hundred less, less protein five point five grams, so almost half as much fat, not dissimilar at fifteen grams, and very low saturated fat. And I'm assuming that will be a mix because it's got less sesame probably and also veg setable oil through it. Carbohydrate eleven sugars two point seven grams,
three hundred milligrams of sodium, no detectable gluten. Now this label is I think a little bit confusing when we're looking at the nutritionals, which is why I'm interested in what you're going to say about it, because this has actually got significantly more chickpeas than the pilpel, So the purpel's got fifty three percent, followed by tahini as their ingredient. This one chickpease seventy seven percent, so twenty percent more
not insignificant. Next ingredient vegetable oil, which I don't it's probably palm, but the saturated fats loow, so maybe it's not. Might be what canola? Yeah, probably yeah, say they'd list that it's not palm, I would say with a low saturated fat, so I don't know why they haven't listed it as canola. We can assume sesame seed paste is five percent a garlic puree, so they're using that to give it the flav as opposed. We don't have a percentage on the sesame and tahini in the pillpel, which
is unfortunate. Garlic puree, vinegar, lemon juice, acidity regulators similar to keep that stable, salt, thickness, a little bit of sugar, very small amount spices and preservatives now made in Australia from eighty five percent Austraight ingredients.
So there's a few pros with this product. Do you know it's cheaper?
It is got a high proportion of Australian ingredients, got a higher proportion of chickpeas. But why then, leanne tell me, why is the protein so much higher in the pill pearl with less chickpea through it from the sessame?
Surely no, the tarhini, Yeah, titan is quite high protein because it's a compated So they're using a better quality tahini mix in the pill pel which is also significantly bumping up the protein. Well, they're using a tarhani and they're using it the sesame seed paste in the black swam, So definitely the quality of the ingredients is much better in the propel.
Yeah, but you know, you really do need to have your nutritional hat on. So lucky the nutrition couches here to differentiate this because it's not easy to see, because I think if you were just looking at that, you would think, oh, well, this is actually better or at least comparable, given the higher proportion of chickpeas.
I think the ingredients aren't as good like it is. There is added sugar, there's a little bit. Oh no, it's actually less sodium the vegetab oil.
If we were summarizing it, the problem is the vegetable oil because we're adding in a refined oil.
And also, what is sesame seed paste? Yesme, seed paste? Like what goes into that?
To me?
While it is just pure sesame suits like, yeah, the quality of it, it's not tahani like we know tahan is basically just ground up sesame seeds with a bit of water. What goes into a sesame seed paste? Is there more vegetable oils in that? I just think the quality of the ingredients is better in the propel one. And yes, it is slightly lower calories. So from a fat loss perspective, people might go, oh, the skinny homue is better, but let's be honest, per serving, it's not.
It's you know, it's twenty thirty calories per serving. If you're sticking to a small amount, it's it's neither here nor there when you're having you know, half the tub. Okay, yes, it's it's two hundred calories versus two fifty. So maybe that does make a difference. But to me, I think the quality of the ingredients, I personally would probably go with a propel and recommend that more for my clients. It's also dairy free and gluten free as well, so it takes a lot of our boxes for our clients
that need, you know, civic sort of dietary requirements as well. True.
True, So if I was raiding them to try and get some differentiation here, i'd give the Propel at eight or nine out of ten, and i'd give the black Swan, say a seven. So it's not a bad product, but it doesn't have this sort of standout nutritional profile that the pipel does simply because it's a very much cleaner ingredient list and suggestive of much higher quality product. It's also seen by that nutritional profile where you're getting more protein.
Through it all. Right. Now, the last one is.
A little bit of a dark horse, the Triple S Foods Hommus. Now, this product came to my awareness when I was a judge of the Healthy Food Guide Awards because I actually hadn't seen it before, and I believe it's a product that you can only find it will worth, and it's not easy to find, but certainly it's got some good things to talk about.
Today.
Retails for three dollars per one hundred and twenty five grams, so out of the three, it's the least expensive product. So it's a dollar cheaper for a similar larger actual serve than the Black Swan fifty four percent chickpea followed by water then tahini, so it is using pure tahini similar to the Pilpel and they've listed at eight point
five percent, which I love to see. I would love to see that on the Propeller label, so we'd get an idea of actually how much proportion of those ingredients are going in, because yes, it's suggestive of a higher quality tahini and sesamemx sea salt, citric acid, lemon juice, herb and fruit extra and garlic, so to be honestly, and this has got the cleanest ingredient list out of the three of them, and it's made in Australia from
ninety percent of Australian ingredients. So if we take a look nutritionally, we've got five hundred and fifteen killer jewels per one hundred grams. Now, that is significantly less than both of the ones we've just seen. If I look at the it's almost.
Not half, well nearly it is half.
It's half as many killer jewels, which is fascinating for a similar product. And mind you, the serving sizes, they're fiddling a little bit, but per hundred so that's fine. Five point seven grams of protein, perserve, six point five grams of total fat, ninety one point four saturated, so a low saturated fat food, no added sugars, five point one grams of dietary fiber, and four hundred and ninety
three milligrams of sodium. So this is a really interesting product, and certainly it rated very highly with the other dietitians when we rated these products. So for me, I can't this doesn't have added oil to it, so it's not like we're saying, well, Purpel is superior because it uses extravergin olive oil. This product doesn't use any added oil.
Hence you're getting a much lower fat product. So I would rate it as highly, if not more highly than Purpell, and probably give it a nine nine and a half out of ten. But I will say it really depends on taste and flavor with these foods, because it's all well and good to have lower calorie products, but if they don't taste good, and I haven't actually eaten this, so I don't know, but I know Purpel tastes amazing, and certainly it's one of the ones on rotation in
my home, so I can't comment on this. I would have tasted it when we did the awards, but in terms of on a day to day basis, I'm not overly familiar with it, so I don't know.
Have you tried it? I haven't. I haven't been able to find it. As you said, it's hard to hire. Available at woolwors, but I haven't seen it in my local. All the other one I went to kind of down the road, not down the road, but you know, good ten to fifty minute drive away. I couldn't find it either, so I was a bit disappointed because I'm like you, I would even potentially put it higher than propel, but
does it taste as good? But interestingly, the fat profile is still really good because they've got a higher amount of tarhini in there, and even just looking at the dietary fiber, like four point nine grams per one hundred grams in the propell versus five point one grams, so it's only slightly higher, but it's actually higher with a smaller amount of chickpea, So I think it's I think
it's great. I think the ingredient list it's very clean, it's very good quality ingredients made from ninety percent Australian ingredients. So again, I think we can just assume that it's really the sesame of the tarhini that's sort of shipped in from overseas, which is fine. I think it's a really strong product. I just haven't been able to get my hands on it to taste it, unfortunately, but I would definitely be recommending this and using this in meal
plants my clients. I wouldn't have a hesitation as long as I got the feedback that it tasted good.
And for me, this is a product that I would be more likely to encourage my clients to use as a spread more regularly in their diet. So for example, if they're looking for a spread, I would much rather than use some of this than marjarine or butter on any of their toast or salad, you know, crackers wraps. So you know, if you've tried it, let us know. But you know, absolutely, I'm giving it really high marks.
I think it's a great product if you can find it, and I would have no hesitation recommending this in all the pill pel to be consumed in controlled amount, so full disclosure. I do say to my client's no hommus only because when it's in the fridge it's really easy to get on dipping. I do tend to encourage it
more so to be a sport of product. You might buy for a platter and you're entertaining and popping it out that way, or making sure you're medasur the serves out because keep in mind the recommended serves that these are just a tablespoon or two. But I would be more likely to agree to my clients enjoying the triple less foods more frequently because it is significantly lower in calories if you can keep those portions under control.
So we'd love to hear if you.
Have tried it, or perhaps if you've got a little dark horse dip that you'd write to share with us. But as I said, there are a sort of growing range of more vegetable based dips, and hopefully dips that have got a better profile than cream cheese and vegetable oil as the base. And if you really want a very quick scan of an ingredient list on a dip, i'd be looking for ones that don't contain cream, cheese or vegetable oil. On the base and you'll be on the right track.
I just want to make a really quick point with the black Swan skinny hommers, the serving size is actually ten grams. I just picked up on that. So the propel is twenty grams, the SSS food homus is twenty five grams, and the Blackscorn skinny one is ten grams. So yes, you will end up quite slim and losing weight if you're eating ten grams of hommas per serving, which let's be honest, it's like a teaspoon and a half.
Nobody's actually eating that, so they can get away with making their nutrition panel look very good at any twenty two calories are serving. But show me anybody that only eats ten grams of hommus, like they don't exist their unicorns.
No, it's definitely a serving size of at least one hundred. I say, I had to love Actually when you go to the supermarket and you see those individual homus snack tubs, we say those like you get like three crackers in this massive bowl of it, and it's like three or four hundred calories in that little snack, And I'm thinking.
Yeah, definitely not ten can be a great addition to.
A platter, but can certainly derail your diet if you're not keeping a close eye on how you're enjoying it. All Rightlyn Well, that brings us to the end of the Nutrition Couch product review for another week, and I'm sure this will be one of our highest rated episodes since we have covered the much desired topic of dips
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Have a great week, can tain on next week