Eat THIS, Not THAT #2

So, lets talk about Pasta.

mmmmmmmmm. Its my fav. I could probably eat it everyday. no joke. But I only make it 1x a week and sometimes may eat it over the weekend. My kids LOVE noodles! What kid doesn't??!! So I tend to feed them pasta more often than Brent & I. That makes it pretty important for me to make a good choice!

So what pasta is bad for you?

White Pasta. very bad. I only make it for holidays if then. We have cut it out almost entirely.

So, lets talk about why is white pasta bad?

One of the main reasons why you should avoid white pasta in your diet is because this popular staple is made largely from refined white flour. Refined white flour in itself contains almost no dietary goodness in itself and its consumption can have negative effects on health.

Eating white pasta can be likened to eating cardboard, because although it tastes a little better, cardboard probably contains more goodness! The lack of nutrients in white pasta may not make it such a bad thing to eat on its own, but it’s the bad constituents of white pasta that make it such a bad deal when it comes to your general health and weight.

First of all, just like white bread (which we NEVER eat), white pasta contains a large amount of high GI (glycemic index) carbohydrates. That means that the carbohydrates contained in pasta made from refined white flour will release sugars into the bloodstream quickly. This causes a steep rise in blood sugar and a similarly steep reactive rise in the body’s sugar regulating hormone, insulin in order to counter its effects. So many foods do this and that's why we see such an increase in diabetes. Remember how I said I could eat pasta everyday? Its like a sugar treat - it does the same thing to your body as a chocolate bar and contains nothing good for you. Its a feel good food.

The effect on the body’s metabolism is to slow it down, while inhibiting efficient digestion. The result is more fat storage, with those fat cells generally being deposited around the belly. This, as you have probably already figured out is a leading cause of weight gain in people who eat a lot of refined flour products, not least of those being white pasta.

So this is what you DON'T want to eat. Not any brand. White pasta- NO NO!! Make it once it a while for lasagna or eat once in a while while out but NOT as your regular diet.

DON'T EAT THIS!!

Eat THIS instead:

I LOVE BARILLA PLUS PASTA!!! So do my kids. Its great. Its a Multi grain pasta. Much more fiber and protein and lots of good ingredients. Barilla plus tastes similar to white and doesn't have a strong wheat flavor some do not like. It also mixes better with a variety of toppings.

We also eat Whole wheat pasta. Whole wheat pasta is even better for you than Barilla plus. There are lots of different brands. We like this and other.

We like whole wheat pasta the best with a Red Sauce (always low sugar) or tossed with veggies and olive oil and a bit of Parmesan.

Choose your everyday staples wisely!

Eat THIS, not THAT.

OK, so before I get into this post I should tell you that I STILL have to force my kids to eat their vegetables many times. sigh. Its frustrating. I have tried pretty hard to land on the healthy side of eating. I would say on a scale of 1-10 we are between a 6-7 most days. I don't do all Organic but I try to make the best choices I can.

Some people misunderstand eating healthy as "you just want to be skinny". Sure. I want to be skinny. But I can honestly say changing our eating habits and the brands we buy has NOTHING to do with me wanting to be skinny.

A few years ago, I was exposed to a few moms that would read every label at events. I'll be honest. It was kind of annoying and made me feel a bit defensive. I put it off thinking, "her kids probably have allergies".

And sure. I found out some of them did. But then someone told me to look up some ingredients on labels.

and so... to Google I went!

and I almost threw up. EWWWW. We really have NO idea what we are eating AND in addition many researchers are convinced that the increase in certain disease's we see is directly linked to the changes in food. scary.

Those of you that know me well, know that I had a sister die of cancer at 11. During my sisters sickness, my mom learned a LOT about food and changed our families eating habits. I was young at the time and didn't really get it. But here I was a few years ago, in my 20's, reading this information and completely understanding the changes my mom made.

Who hasn't watched Food Inc ????

You really have too. You need to at least know WHAT you are eating. Denial is bliss but at what cost?? I would rather choose to be educated about the food I am eating, how its made, what it's made of, how it digests (or doesn't digest is probably more common), etc. Most food isn't even food anymore.

You can watch it on You Tube.

Here wait, I will get the link for you:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpv4BsmDUM8&feature=related

There you go. I made it easy. You have to watch all 9 videos. Let me know if you need the other links, I will get them for you. Don't make excuses just watch it. You can even rent it.

OK, So here's my first post on EAT THIS INSTEAD OF THAT. I am going to do it weekly. Today we will talk about Chicken Nuggets. I know most of us know that the Mcdonalds ones suck. haha. Lets look at the differences in the store frozen brand. I try to make my own often, I will post a recipe for those. But most of us need some fast meals on hand and many moms will feed chicken nuggets to their kids. Kids love them, they are advertised everywhere.

** Disclaimer ** these package stats posted below will constantly change in the store. Food products are constantly changing, This is why you need to always check your labels and understand what certain ingredients are.

Purdue Chicken Nuggets:

They look innocent enough. In fact their website and package proudly displays 0 trans fat!!! Just look up some of the ingredients I highlighted and then compare the the STATS list of the two food products. Notice the difference in Fat, Oils used and sodium. Along with all the additives. Also notice how the flour in the Purdue is enriched with all sorts of good additives. Right. The Earths Best just uses whole wheat flour. Sounds so much easier than adding all those good, fake additives.

Perdue' package:

Ingredients:
Chicken breast with rib meat, water, dried whole eggs, seasoning (salt, onion powder, modified corn starch, natural flavor), and sodium phosphates.
BREADED WITH: Enriched unbleached wheat flour (enriched with niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, dextrose, iodized salt, yellow corn flour, modified corn starch, dried whey, soy flour, sugar, spices, caramel color, garlic powder, methylcellulose, artificial oleoresin paprika, spice extractive. Breading set in vegetable oil.

STATS per serving:

       Calories 260 

       Total Fat 16g

•        Saturated Fat 4g
• Trans Fat 0g
• Polyunsaturated Fat 5g
• Monounsaturated Fat 6g

• Cholesterol 75mg
• Sodium 450mg

Earth's Best Chicken Nuggets

These nuggets taste AWESOME and have whole grain breading along with a much better ingredient list. They are a bit more expensive. Maybe $1-$2 a package depending on your store.

Earths Best package:

Chicken Meat, Water, Contains Less than 2% of the Following: Evaporated Cane Juice, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Rice Starch, Sea Salt, Spice. Battered & Breaded with: Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Wheat Flour, Corn Starch, Evaporated Cane Juice, Sea Salt, Leavening (Baking Soda, Cream of Tartar), Garlic Powder, Yellow Corn Flour, Yeast, Onion Powder, Spice, Sunflower Oil, Extractive of Turmeric. Breading Set in Expeller Pressed Canola Oil and/or Soybean Oil and/or Safflower Oil.

STATS per serving
Calories 120
Total Fat 3g

• Saturated Fat 0g 0%

• Cholesterol 25mg
• Sodium 270mg

Weaver and Banquet brand nuggets are basically the same as Purdue. Banquet is even a bit worse.  Tyson has recently changed their nugget recipe to much better ingredients however their fat stats stay the same because of the bad oil they fry them in.
PS. Don't ever buy chicken that says Mechanically seperated chicken. Just look that up. Try not to throw up.

Read your labels. If you get nothing else from this blog, that would be enough.