Pasta cravings

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

That being said, does anyone know of any types of pasta with less calories, that still tastes like pasta?

I don't think it's the "taste" of pasta that we like, it's the "feel" of pasta. It is high in complex carbohydrate: "starch," a chain polymer of glucose. Once eaten, it is broken back down into glucose and readily metabolized. For that reason, it's a great source of energy. If it's not used, your body stores that energy very efficiently in our miraculous fat cells for later use.

The fat from the Parmigiano Reggiano sprinkled on top - or from the EVOO or meatballs involved - will be stored as fat in preference to the carbs, though. 😉

https://www.tastingtable.com/764058/types-of-pasta-and-when-you-should-be-using-them/
We didn't have any pasta growing up, it was just spaghetti then. It always hits the spot and rates high on the list of uncomplicated, comfort food.

Isabella Rossellini

LenGray wrote: »

FWIW, I made lasagna for this week and was surprised at how few noodles I used. I was halving it between my dad and I (my half was vegan, his wasn't) and I miscalculated how many noodles I'd need and added about half of the amount I was supposed to, so about 6 lasagna sheets.

I'm sure that it helped that I had tons of tofu ricotta, spinach, mushrooms, and sauce to fill it out, but the lasagna still felt satisfyingly noodle-y, even with only half the noodles. Maybe cut down a bit on the noodles, up the veggies, and see if that fits your calories a bit better?

Funny you posted this. I made the exact same mistake earlier this summer, and it was so good, I intentionally did it on the next batch. Don’t even miss the missing pasta.

I only use the “uncut” Mozzarella balls now, too. They are about 20 calories less per serving than part skim shredded and taste waaaaay better. It’s a PITA to shred but by cutting half the lasagna noodles and changing cheese, that’s a pretty considerable savings there.

@Jthanmyfitnesspal i bet you’re a fun guy at parties. Or pasta dinners. Come on over!

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

It looks like I've been eating too much pasta, I'll try and cut back to 50-75g

In general, me too! I'm 10-15 lbs above my preferred weight. A bit too much good food and drink over the last year! 🤤

@AnnPT77 : I think it's a really complicated question about whether fats or carbs are more likely to be stored as fat. Your body breaks both down in the digestive tract and absorbs them. Fats break down more slowly than most carbs (particularly when they're refined). My feeble understanding is that any extra nutrients will be converted to body fat. It's really a philological miracle that we can do that, but many of us have found the limits to its benefits!

Sure, in the abstract, any/all nutrients can be broken down and stored as fat, in a calorie surplus. The point is that fat is generally the preferred macronutrient to be stored as fat, in the human body.

Think about it: Natural selection favors things that are efficient routes to survival. It has a higher energetic cost to convert carbs or protein into fat in order to store those calories as fat. Fat intake requires minimal conversion, so it's efficient to store it preferentially when a mix of macronutrients is available.

Putting it another way, de novo lipogenesis (making fat from carbs in the body) is less common. While there are complexities (aren't there always?), this is taken as a given in most nutritional research, when it comes to typical reasonably-healthy humans. A couple of completely random examples referring to it almost as an aside:

From https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/74/6/707/4737384, noting that oxidation means burning for short-term energetic use:

In the hierarchy of fuels, dietary carbohydrate appears to have a higher priority for oxidation than does dietary fat; when both are present, carbohydrate is chosen.

From https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10365981/, noting that DNL = de novo lipogenesis, CHO = dietary carbohydrates:

Eucaloric replacement of dietary fat by CHO does not induce hepatic DNL to any substantial degree. Similarly, addition of CHO to a mixed diet does not increase hepatic DNL to quantitatively important levels, as long as CHO energy intake remains less than total energy expenditure (TEE). Instead, dietary CHO replaces fat in the whole-body fuel mixture, even in the post-absorptive state.
. . .
It is concluded that DNL is not the pathway of first resort for added dietary CHO, in humans.

It's motherhood and apple pie info, basic.

I injected here (in my PP) mostly as a mild joke, TBH - assumed most people knew this.

neanderthin wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

It looks like I've been eating too much pasta, I'll try and cut back to 50-75g

In general, me too! I'm 10-15 lbs above my preferred weight. A bit too much good food and drink over the last year! 🤤

@AnnPT77 : I think it's a really complicated question about whether fats or carbs are more likely to be stored as fat. Your body breaks both down in the digestive tract and absorbs them. Fats break down more slowly than most carbs (particularly when they're refined). My feeble understanding is that any extra nutrients will be converted to body fat. It's really a philological miracle that we can do that, but many of us have found the limits to its benefits!

Sure, in the abstract, any/all nutrients can be broken down and stored as fat, in a calorie surplus. The point is that fat is generally the preferred macronutrient to be stored as fat, in the human body.

Think about it: Natural selection favors things that are efficient routes to survival. It has a higher energetic cost to convert carbs or protein into fat in order to store those calories as fat. Fat intake requires minimal conversion, so it's efficient to store it preferentially when a mix of macronutrients is available.

Putting it another way, de novo lipogenesis (making fat from carbs in the body) is less common. While there are complexities (aren't there always?), this is taken as a given in most nutritional research, when it comes to typical reasonably-healthy humans. A couple of completely random examples referring to it almost as an aside:

From https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/74/6/707/4737384, noting that oxidation means burning for short-term energetic use:

In the hierarchy of fuels, dietary carbohydrate appears to have a higher priority for oxidation than does dietary fat; when both are present, carbohydrate is chosen.

From https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10365981/, noting that DNL = de novo lipogenesis, CHO = dietary carbohydrates:

Eucaloric replacement of dietary fat by CHO does not induce hepatic DNL to any substantial degree. Similarly, addition of CHO to a mixed diet does not increase hepatic DNL to quantitatively important levels, as long as CHO energy intake remains less than total energy expenditure (TEE). Instead, dietary CHO replaces fat in the whole-body fuel mixture, even in the post-absorptive state.
. . .
It is concluded that DNL is not the pathway of first resort for added dietary CHO, in humans.

It's motherhood and apple pie info, basic.

I injected here (in my PP) mostly as a mild joke, TBH - assumed most people knew this.

Dietary fat has no option, its normal metabolic pathway is storage into adipose tissue. It's excess energy from carboydrates that increase DNL, therefore eucaloric replacements of dietary fat with carbohydrates will not increase DNL very much and adding charboydrates to our diet doesn't increase DNL as long as energy balance is in the deficit territory and one of the reasons sugar (charboydrates) are the primary fuel from stored glycogen, so of course DNL which is a very expensive metabolic event isn't the first resort for energy (ATP) in humans or adding glucose. I'm having a hard time understanding the point you're trying to make. BTW your first link was a good read, thanks I haven't read that before.

I made what I meant as a mild joke after people on the thread were talking about pasta with parmesan, etc., with asides about fat gain from eating the pasta - that the parmesan's fat was more likely to end up stored as fat than the pasta itself. Thought everyone knew that, took it for granted. That drew a "it's really complicated, nutrients get broken down and absorbed", who-knows kind of reply, so pulled a couple of random links to illustrate how known/assumed that is. That's all. No point beyond that.

Obviously - simplistically - no calorie surplus, no net storage of any of the nutrients into adipose tissue.

It has been a long time since I was last in Italy but I remember Primo portions of pasta served to be rather modest. We are going to Bologna on Monday and will try to remember to photograph my restaurant pasta portions while I am there.

This is how we typically eat pasta in my household. The brown butter and sage saucing the potato gnocchi is not low calorie, I'm afraid, but very quick and easy. Gnocchi was made with two medium potatoes cooked in the microwave, half a beaten egg and two tablespoons of flour and took 10 minutes to hand knead and roll. It was a little bigger than our normal portion of dry pasta, as quantity was dictated by the size of the potatoes. I might try kneading in the food processor next time to speed things up, which risks creating rubbery rather than pillowy gnocchi. A small secondo of some air fried drumsticks and asparagus followed.

Day 1 of vacation in Bologna, and our first serving of pasta is bigger than I remember from other cities. This was tortelli with ragu eaten as a single couirse meal at lunchtime. I was a little disappointed, as i prefer my pasta very hard, Naples style. So fresh pasta as opposed to dried is always a little soft for my taste.

I'm not sure if someone said this but Banza pasta is made with chickpeas and to me, it tastes exactly like normal pasta. It is also high in protein if you're trying to get protein up and it is more filling to me than pasta made with flour. I can have 4oz of it with some sauce and an additional protein and be full. (28g protein in 4oz topped with 4oz chicken breast - 31g protein - and Rao's marinara sauce is my favorite way to eat it. That's a total of about 60g of protein not too high in calories). Try it out!

@neanderthin
That carbonara looks great and a reasonably sized portion too.

Day 2 of vacation in Bologna and my one course pasta lunch was tortollini in brodo with a side of grilled veg. Double the portion from what I remember from the last couple pre-pandenmic trips to Lombardy and Sicily.