Graduation/ pasta

rybo

Rice & pasta are not bad. They can be easy to over indulge on, so some people say they are evil and should be avoided.
Personally I don't eat much if any pasta, but I eat a lot of rice. The only reason for me not eating much pasta...I'm not that big a fan. Has nothing to do with health or dieting.

lemurcat12

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

ndj1979 wrote: »

I eat rice three to four times a week and then Sara at least one a week and have no issues maintaining or curing weight. There are no bad foods , just bad diets.

wow, good for you (and sara!)

Heh, I was going to suggest that belonged in the ChitChat forum!

One thing about pasta I meant to mention above -- I think it's easy to overeat not because a smaller serving is unsatisfying, but because many have portion distortion and think a serving is larger than it is, and -- and this was an issue for me -- if you don't measure it's easy to take too much when it's dry (I always misjudge how much it expands) and then have too much after cooking, but not want to waste it, so... Once I started weighing it, it was easy not to overeat it, and if I want more food I just add more sauce/topping (which as noted I make full of vegetables and lean meat).

I really think pasta's bad rap (other than for idiotic things like "it's a carb" or "it's a white food") is more about people associating it with overly large portions or high cal dishes like mac and cheese or carbonara or alfredo or whatever and not the kinds of pasta dishes that are so easy to make at home and IMO satisfying.

sllm1

I eat rice every day.

With the pasta, I agree that portion control is important. When I could eat pasta (gluten intolerant now), I would weigh it before cooking.

amusedmonkey

Even before the low carb craze, pasta and rice have been some of the first things to cut on a diet. There are several reasons and observations:
- They are bland foods (same goes for bread) that are often used as a vehicle for sauces and spreads, which can be quite calorific and high in salt. It's often quite possible for said sauces and spreads to be high in calories making these dishes a bit costly on the calories front. Eat too much of these and the calories will stack up high preventing weight loss.
- They are high in carbs and the sauces added to them tend to be high in sodium. Eat a good enough amount and you'll wake up heavier next day from water retention. Dieters tend to have a narrow vision when it comes to the scale.
- They are white. It has been hammered into people's heads that white foods are bad for you and "have no nutrients" (which isn't true). For some reason that escapes me people tend to mix up weight loss and nutrition without a distinction.
- Some people legitimately don't feel full eating pasta and rice (especially if coupled with a high calorie sauce making portions too small for the calories and not worth it).
- As said earlier, some people consider them nothing but a vehicle and would rather cut on that than some other food they consider essential.

Me? I love both pasta and rice (and bread). I feel full eating them and I have a good enough understanding of how both nutrition and weight loss work. I enjoy them for what they are, not simply as a sauce delivery system and I feel they're worth a cut of my calories. I'm also not prone to overeating them. For that, I didn't see a need to cut them out so I didn't. I have lost a good amount of weight eating bread daily, rice several times a week sometimes twice a day, and pasta a few times a month - same pattern of eating I had before I decided to lose weight. It's a simple matter of deciding whether these foods are worth the calories to you, just like any other higher calorie food.

CattOfTheGarage

Varies from person to person. Personally I find a lot of "white" foods (eg pasta, potatoes) to be quite filling, so as long as I watch the portions, they serve me well. Others find they are left hungry soon after eating them, so they end up eating more. Experiment.

DamieBird

I eat pasta and rice quite frequently (in fact I'm having pasta with shrimp, bacon, and peas tonight!), I just had to re-learn appropriate portion sizes . I typically stick to 50g uncooked rice or 56g uncooked campanelle pasta, but will go for more if I'm REALLY hungry and I have the room in my kcals. To make up for the difference in volume, I load them up with veggies and protein. I make sure that I'm meticulous about measuring, because even a few grams difference can add up quite a bit. An extra 14g of pasta = a tbsp. of heavy cream that I can use in a sauce.

As with anything is your diet, strive for balance and eat what you enjoy!

ndj1979

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

ndj1979 wrote: »

I eat rice three to four times a week and then Sara at least one a week and have no issues maintaining or curing weight. There are no bad foods , just bad diets.

wow, good for you (and sara!)

lol I hate autocorrect