Want to know the difference between biltong and jerky? We have the answer for you¬
Biltong has become a popular protein snack in recent times. Much like beef jerky, it’s tasty, high in protein and is the perfect convenient snack to grab on the go.
Whether you’re working from home or working out at the gym, biltong is the ideal energy snack to see you through the day.
So, what’s the difference between biltong and jerky?
What is biltong?
Biltong is a dried, cured and spiced meat snack, with beef being the most common variant. It is often confused with beef jerky due to the fact that they are both dried meat. However, what makes these two snacks different is how they are made.
Biltong’s recent rise in popularity comes as no surprise – given its high protein content and low kcals! Just look at our Stript Snacks beef biltong – it contains no MSG, no added sugars and is completely gluten free!
Difference Between Biltong and Jerky Figure 1: goodhousekeeping.com
The difference between biltong and jerky.
Biltong and jerky are both dried, flavoured meat snacks, however, Biltong meat’s production process involves curing, marinating and air drying over a long period of time, taking anything from 24 hours to one week.
Jerky is thin cut and usually roasted or smoked for several hours which can cause a tougher texture as the meat is dehydrated from the cooking and packaging process. Biltong’s marination process in tasty spices gives it a more natural, tender flavour & texture.
And guess what? Biltong is proven to be healthier than beef jerky [1]. It’s lean and high in protein, making it the perfect exercise companion or midday snack at your desk! Biltong’s curing method ensures that the meat maintains its nutritional value.
Choosing a tasty, air-cured meat snack is a win-win for those who want to snack without the guilt. They contain less calories than other healthy snacks on the market – like protein bars – and they taste good too!
Difference Between Biltong and Jerky Figure 2: Tripsavvy.com
So, how do I get my hands on some Biltong?
Luckily, stocking up on healthy, tasty protein snacks has never been easier online!
Our Stript Snacks are made with100% British and Irish beef and can be ordered through our website and Amazon U.K. You can also get free delivery on all orders over £20!
With Stript Snacks, you can enjoy all these amazing biltong benefits with 13G protein and less than 75 kcals per pack.
Looking for energy boosting foods that will help you stay focused during exam time, while you do that big project in work or simply to make the most of day-to-day life? It’s a bit of a minefield searching high and low online to find the best foods to keep your mind and body healthy, so we’ve pulled together a list for you!
Our Top 5 Energy Boosting Foods
Here’s our top 5 energy boosting foods to get you started:
Blueberries
Blueberries are our top choice for brain functioning & energy boosting and one of our favourite superfoods! These little dark blue wonders are packed with nutrients & antioxidants.
Figure 1: goodhousekeeping.com
As well as providing us with a tasty food boost that is low in calories, blueberries are anti-inflammatory, [1] helping to keep your mind & body in tip top shape!
Add some to your morning porridge or pop them into a fruit-packed smoothie to give you an energy boost during that 3pm slump.
Not a blueberry fan? Why not incorporate strawberries or acai berries into your diet instead!
2. Eggs
Full of vitamins B6 & B12[2] , eggs are a great energy boosting food that supports brain health & a healthy immune system.
Figure 2: healthline.com
Eggs are a great food for keeping you full for longer, providing energy – the best thing though is that they can be consumed in so many ways! Try boiled, scrambled, or poached for breakfast and to make it even tastier, add some of our Red Chilli Beef Biltong for a kick! Inspo for other meals? Add some healthy vegetables like peas & broccoli into a frittata for dinner!
So how do I eat more pumpkin seeds? Try toasting them and putting into your favourite salad or cover them in your favourite spice and pop them in the oven to roast for an energy boosting snack! We love having pumpkin seeds with our Black Pepper Beef Biltong in a snack bowl with nuts!
4. Nuts
Nuts are a fantastic source of protein, vitamins & nutrients, particularly Vitamin E. [4] From walnuts to cashews to almonds and pecans, nuts are a great and tasty way of packing in extra nutrients to your meals. Nuts are a great snack food — inexpensive, easy to store and easy to pack when you’re on the go.
Figure 4: womenshealthmag.com
A small, palm-sized portion (30g) is the perfecting energy boosting snack, bringing valuable vitamins into your daily food intake. Each type of nut also has its own wonderful health benefits, so you can choose from a big variety to suit your tastes.
So, how can I get more nuts into my diet? Easy! They’re great for an on-the-go snack to give you an energy boost or you can use them in lots of your breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Try putting some pecans on your porridge in the morning. Or why not toast up some flaked almonds and sprinkle them over your salads for a bit of crunch and that much needed boost at lunchtimes!
5. Broccoli
Last but certainly not least, our leafy, green friend broccoli. Packed full of vitamins, this vegetable can also help support brain functioning and its fibre qualities are a great source of energy. [5]
Figure 5: bbcgoodfood.com
Did you know you can eat broccoli raw and cooked? We prefer cooked but each to their own! Steam, boil or pop into a stir fry to get those vitamins in during the day. We eat broccoli at least 2-3 times per week!
Eating healthy foods on a tight budget can be challenging. While your intentions are good, foods that are full of nutrients tend to be expensive – making cheap junk foods all the more tempting!
Whether it be a restaurant meal, an on-the-go snack, or your entire weekly shop – it all adds up! However, there are plenty of foods you can purchase that both are healthy and affordable. You just need to know where to find them.
With finding healthy foods, planning is key. By spending more time planning, you will spend less money in the long-run. This includes all aspects of your meals, including your budget, ingredients and where to buy.
Set Your Budget
To get an idea of what you can afford, you need to take a deep dive into your finances and set a realistic budget.
This should cover your food spend for each day, week or month depending on your personal preference.
You can break it down even further and consider how much you want to spend for each meal. Usually, breakfast and lunch can be done cheaply. While dinner is often the most costly with it being a more substantial meal. Therefore, you should allocate a bigger chunk of your spend towards this.
By setting a budget, you will have a better idea of what healthy foods you can afford. Don’t worry if you need to tweak your budget slightly here and there. A way around this is by having an initial spend cap, then a secondary spend cap that you don’t mind hitting every now and then.
Research Cheap Meal Ideas
If you’re not sure which healthy foods to stock up on, use your five-a-day and daily recommended protein intake as a guideline. This includes five portions of fruit and vegetables (1). Plus a protein intake of 45g for women, and 55g for men (2). This way, you know you’ll be achieving a healthy, balanced diet.
With these foods in mind, start researching cheap breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas online. You can note recipes you like that are within your budget, to then plan for each day. Plus, you can better plan portion sizes and leftovers, and how you can use these more efficiently for your next meal.
If you have certain fitness goals in mind, then consider what cheap healthy foods will help you achieve this. For example, if you want to up your carbs, then include a bag of potatoes on your food shop list (3). If you want to eat nutrient-dense food, add kale (4). To increase your protein intake, try biltong, which boasts a generous 13g of protein and only 75 kcals per pack.
Find Out Where to Buy
Once you have your budget and meal ideas planned, the next step is finding out where to buy these items cheaply.
As all supermarkets stock the same healthy foods, you can go online and compare prices. Luckily, after doing this once, you will know in future where to go for your food shop.
If you don’t want to go to a supermarket, there are other alternatives. For example, you can purchase boxes of misshapen veg that would otherwise go to waste, at a cheaper price compared to supermarkets.
Once you have completed your research, you will have a better idea of how to shop cheaply and healthily in the future. Helping you meet your goals in saving money and feeling better overall.
While doing your research, you may have found a couple of hacks for finding cheap healthy foods. If you’re still looking for inspiration, here are some of our top tips:
Buying in Bulk
When you buy in bulk, you get more for less. While it may feel like you’re spending more, you are actually saving more than you would by buying in lesser quantities, more often. Also, buying in bulk means you can better plan your meals for the week ahead.
For example: if you buy a multipack of key ingredients like onions, you can use these across your meals for the entire week. Even if you see an item in bulk that is about to go out of date, you can cook a batch meal and freeze the rest for a later date. This not only saves you money and time, but it helps to reduce food waste.
There are also many healthy snacks that can be bought in bulk, like Stript Snacks biltong. It comes in two tasty flavours, Red Chilli and Cracked Black Pepper, in handy packs of 10. This means you can save money, and get your much-needed boost of protein, whether you enjoy it on its own or in a recipe.
Growing Your Own
If you are adamant about keeping your costs down for the long-term, you can opt to grow your own fruit and veg. This can be done at an allotment plot, or in your own greenhouse in the back garden. This can also make a great hobby, plus you will feel a great deal of satisfaction eating your own homegrown food.
Searching for Deals
By taking a little time each week to search the latest deals, you can save even more money on your healthy foods. To ensure you’re the first to know, sign up for your favourite supermarket’s email subscription. Or, you can register with specialist sites, like Healthy Supplies, or even discount specific sites like Groupon to be alerted of their latest deals on healthy foods.
While it can be difficult to stay healthy and save money, planning is key to ensure you keep costs low and enjoy the many benefits of healthy eating.
For more information and inspiration, check out the rest of our blog. Or, if you want to stock up on Stript Snacks, visit our online shop now.
Exercise of any kind can really work up an appetite. But it can be hard to know what to eat to help your workout efforts, rather than hinder them.
If you’re looking for a simple snack to give you a boost, you don’t always have to settle for a basic protein bar. Believe it or not, there’s lots of easy, tasty, effective options you can choose as your post workout snack.
In this blog, we will show you which foods will benefit you the most after a workout, plus provide other tips and tricks so that you can start seeing better results.
When Should You Eat After a Workout?
There are a lot of myths around what and when you should eat after a workout.
After exercising, your body is dehydrated and in much need of replenishment. Therefore it is advised that you eat within 30-45 minutes to help restore energy and repair muscles (1). In fact, delaying your food consumption by as little as two hours can diminish your ability to refuel your muscles by 50% (2)
When it comes to which snacks to eat, experts state that foods enriched with protein, potassium, healthy fats and carbohydrates are key for recharging your body after a workout (2). Let’s take a look at what role each of these nutrients play, and how you can easily source these as post workout snacks.
Food That is Protein Packed
As you may already know, protein is an essential nutrient when it comes to exercise of any kind. Why? Because when you exercise, this strenuous activity takes a toll on your body, by breaking down muscle to help it regrow stronger than before. In order to aid this, you need protein to repair and rebuild these muscles swiftly and successfully (2).
Not only this, but protein offers many other benefits. These include: reducing appetite, boosting metabolism, burning fat, lowering blood pressure and increasing energy (3).
The ideal amount of protein to consume is 20–40 grams in order to maximise the body’s ability to recover after exercise (2). Therefore, you should always look for a compact snack that boasts a high protein count, so that you can up your protein intake in a more convenient way.
One snack that is incredibly high in protein is Stript Snacks biltong. With 13g of protein, you can easily get your protein fix in one pack, which is perfect if you’re on-the-go. What’s more, biltong makes a great pre-gym snack, to give you much-needed fuel to see your workout session through to the end.
To change up your protein intake, we recommend eating eggs, chicken, turkey and nuts (2). If you want to double-up on your protein, you can mix any of these ingredients with biltong. For example: you could try a biltong omelette, biltong and chicken pasta, or even try our signature Biltong Bowl recipe. This dish makes a great post workout snack, as it combines Stript Snacks Cracked Black Pepper flavoured biltong with dried fruit and nuts, creating the perfect blend of flavours and nutrients.
Potassium is a great mineral to have after a workout because it helps revitalise the body and also flushes out any excess salt and water weight (5).
Other benefits include muscle integrity, which is essential for aiding recovery and growth post workout. Plus, it helps to boost metabolism, improve bone health and stabilise blood pressure – all of which will contribute to better long-term health (5).
Foods that are rich in potassium include bananas, sweet potatoes, yogurt and broccoli (6). While bananas are the most common and convenient snack, there are other creative ways you can incorporate potassium into your post workout diet.
For the ultimate post workout snack, get the perfect balance of protein, carbs and potassium with our biltong topped sweet potato fries recipe. Not only is it bursting full of goodness, it is a versatile dish that you can enjoy as a snack, lunch, side dish or supper.
Food Containing Healthy Fats and Carbs
Although you usually hear about avoiding carbs – believe it or not, eating carbs is good for recovery and replenishing fuel after a workout (2).
Likewise, many people think that eating fat after a workout causes slower digestion and, as a result, impedes the absorption of nutrients. However, while certain fats might take longer for your body to absorb, it will not reduce its benefits (2).
Healthy carbs and fats that you can enjoy include milk, quinoa, fruit, rice, oatmeal, potatoes, pasta, avocado and nuts (2). Again, you can get creative with these, and combine them with other nutrients to get the best of both. For example, you could whip up a quick baked potato topped with biltong, or spice up your rice dish with our Red Chilli biltong and some sweet chilli sauce. All while keeping it healthy and beneficial to your workout.
For more inspiration on how you can incorporate biltong into other light dishes, we have a blog covering how you can freshen up your lunch box ideas. Some of these ideas are so quick and easy to make, they make the perfect post workout snack.
Protein is Key for Post Workout Snacks
When it comes to post workout snacks, the key ingredient we have mentioned in this blog is protein, as it boasts the most benefits and is widely accredited across the health and fitness community. Biltong is a versatile snack that is tasty, convenient, and bursting with protein goodness. Whether you enjoy it on its own, or in a main meal.
With 13g of protein, less than 75 kcals per pack and made with 100% British and Irish beef, you can’t go wrong with Stript Snacks biltong as a post workout snack. To order online, check out our online shop. Or to learn more about our biltong, check out the rest of our blogs for ideas, information and inspiration.
A paleo diet completely cuts modern foods, stripping it right back to simpler times when food was obtained through hunting and gathering. While a paleo diet may sound plain – it doesn’t have to be boring!
That’s why we’ve come up with 4 exciting paleo-friendly meal ideas, so that you can fully embrace the paleo diet without sacrificing on taste!
What is a Paleo Diet?
A paleo diet consists of lean meats, fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, nuts and seeds. The name comes from its reference to the Paleolithic era, however some people choose to call it the ‘caveman diet’ or the ‘stone-age diet’.
Where this diet limits its foods, is when farming emerged. This means foods like dairy products, legumes and grains are not counted in the paleo lifestyle.
It is a popular choice among many, as it is heavy on proteins, low in carbs and completely cuts out sugar. It can also improve your health by eliminating high-fat and processed foods that offer very minimal nutritional value and a high amount of calories (1).
Plus, it is presumed that hunters-gatherers had much lower rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease due to their active lifestyle and eating habits – something that people find highly desirable today (2).
Exciting Meal Ideas for a Paleo Diet
While it may sound limiting, the paleo diet actually offers a lot of variety to keep meals different and – believe it or not – exciting! Whether you want to up your paleo diet meal game, or simply integrate more protein and less fat into your current meal plan – we have rounded up these top 4 ideas for you to try.
Eggs are one of the best, most versatile sources of protein – plus they compliment so many other ingredients within the paleo diet.
Biltong is another food that lends itself nicely to the paleo diet, as it is lean beef that’s not processed – just naturally marinated and air-dried. It is completely paleo friendly, contains 13g of protein, less than 75 kcals per pack and adds a whole new dimension to snacking and meal prep for paleo dieters.
Baked eggs is a wonderful rustic dish that is not only healthy – but so quick and easy to make! Simply make a bed of spinach in an ovenproof dish, layer with tinned tomatoes, sprinkle chilli flakes, create a small well (or a couple depending on the size of your dish) and crack in the egg(s). The final step: add some of Stript Snacks Red Chilli biltong and bake for 10 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs.
This dish will be sure to fire you up at any time of the day – whether it be for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Hearty Biltong Stew
Stew is a great, filling comfort food that is bursting full of mixed vegetables and nutrients. Plus, if you’re looking for a convenient meat ingredient with no need to cook – you can use biltong for an instant hit of protein, in less time.
The great thing about paleo diets is that you can still use herbs and spices to amp up your dishes. A well-seasoned stew is hard to beat, but with an added extra like Stript Snacks Cracked Black Pepper biltong, you can boost the flavour even more.
For this, all you need to do is: fry an onion and clove of garlic in a pan, add veg like red pepper or courgettes for a bit of crunch, pour in canned tomatoes, season with salt and sprinkle Cracked Black Pepper biltong on top for a lovely wave of warmth.
Fresh Biltong and Avocado Salad
Avocado is perfect for the paleo diet as it is naturally occurring and rich in healthy fats to keep you fuller for longer.
Biltong is a great accompaniment to this, as it makes a great, healthy replacement for bacon which is often paired with avocado. While you may not be able to enjoy the classic avocado on toast combination when on the paleo diet – there are other ways to substitute this.
For example, you can try biltong and avocado on a bed of lettuce, or you can mash it all up in a fresh, filling salad.
On the paleo diet, you can enjoy a wide range of nuts and seeds to fill up the likes of a salad. Simply rip up some lettuce leaves, slice up an avocado, drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle sesame seeds, chilli flakes and Stript Snacks Red Chilli biltong and you’re good to go!
As paleo diets revolve around meat, vegetables and eggs – they are perfect to combine for a much-loved weekend fry up.
You can use all your usual fry ingredients such as tomatoes, mushrooms and eggs (whatever way you choose). Plus, you can add any extras you prefer, such as avocado or green, yellow or red peppers.
If you’re going on a paleo diet to eat healthier, then you can opt for a better alternative to bacon, and boost your protein intake even more. All you need to do is swap it for Stript Snacks Cracked Black Pepper biltong. This way, you’ll still get the smoky savoury flavour, minus the hassle of cooking and high fat content, as each serving of biltong contains less than 75 kcals per pack.
To complete your fry, simply pan-fry tomatoes, mushrooms, egg, biltong and sprinkle with parsley. So simple and tasty, that you won’t even realise it is paleo-friendly!
We hope you enjoy these easy meal ideas that are perfect for a paleo diet. If you’re interested in other ways you can incorporate biltong into your diet, check out our full recipes page or our blog on how you can freshen up your lunch box ideas.
No matter what flavour you choose, Stript Snacks are 100% paleo friendly, gluten-free and keto-free.
