LUCIEN
I hate getting punched in the head
If anyone wants to help me come up with better thread names, there's a position open. It pays nothing, but you get to feel good about helping your fellow posters avoid suffering through these awful names.
Brief Recap:
Last week we did peanut butter. It's a great food, healthy, with lots of fiber, but full of fat and only a little protein. The current supplemental solutions to this issue are protein enriched peanut butter (my personal favourite is P28) and powdered protein (i recently stopped using this in sandwiches, i mostly use it for baking)
What's the deal with pasta? (Jerry Seinfeld, 2018)
Pasta is a really flexible food that has an infinite number of preparation styles. The main benefit of Pasta is that its chocked full of carbohydrates. Anyone about to play a game or work a physical job would be well served to have a pasta meal beforehand. The issue with pasta, though, is similar to peanut butter: not enough protein and too much damn carbs. This thread is going to explore a bunch of the alternatives that exist to put you on game next time you're at the supermarket.
This thread is going to start out exploring three main alternatives:
Legume Pastas
I just started using a black bean pasta which I like a lot. It costs more, but it's wholly worth the cost in my book. It does have a bean flavour taste, but it's not strong. It's more of a texture than a strong taste. It's kind of like how different colour corn chips taste compared to regular corn chips.
Just to compare what I'm using now to what I used to eat, check out the nutrition labels below
Calories in my Black Bean Pasta
Calories in my old, regular grain pasta
Not only does it have fewer calories for the same amount of pasta, but it also has 7 more grams of protein, 10 more grams of fiber, 0 sugars, and 21 fewer grams of total carbohydrates. In one meal, this is a little healthier, but over the course of a year, the difference in nutrition value is crazy. There is a lot of weight loss potential here, and if you lift, the extra protein will help those gains.
There are other kinds which use Lentils, which might be more up your alley if you prefer lentils over straight-up beans. You can buy it in bulk for fairly cheap (In Canada, Bulk Barn is always doing deals for this stuff) and it has more iron than alternative pastas, which is great if you're prone to anemia like myself.
Calories in Bulk Barn's red lentil pasta
Organic Black Bean Calorie information - Even more protein with fewer caloriesVegetable Pastas
Zucchini Pasta is all the rage right now
The Spiralizer is a popular item these days. For the uninitiated, it's a simple machine that lets you take your own ingredients, like veggies, and make your own pasta. It's great for anybody who is weight conscious or likes to cook. However, if you're not that worried about controlling how your pasta gets made, there are companies that sell premade veggie pastas. Let's look at some of em.
Spinach pasta is a great move if you're someone who needs a good dose of iron for medical reasons. One of the downsides to vegetable pasta, compared to legume pasta, is that it has less protein. If you're just looking to cut pounds without bulking up with some muscle, then this is definitely the choice to make.
Veggie pasta with less calories, less fat, but also less protein
Shirataki Konjac, a japanese vegetable also known as Devil's Yam, is incredibly low calorie. An 85gram serving of Shirataki pasta can be as litle as 20 or so calories. If you really like to eat, and don't wanna eat less volume, switching to this pasta will allow you to eat the same quantity without dealing with the overeating consequences. It's pretty crazy how that works,
Shirataki Pasta with only 28 calories... damn
Protein Enriched Pasta
I have not found many good protein enhanced pastas around my way, so what I write here is just based on what I have read and know about the topic without much personal experience. I can't really comment on taste or body changes.
One really cheap way for companies to boost protein content in foods is with soy. It's cheap as hell due to the way farming subsidies work. What I hate about this, is that soy is really only useful for ladies, due to the estrogenic effects of the plant. If you're a lady who lifts, though, this is definitely a good staple to have.
Soy Protein enriched pasta, with only 150 calories and 17grams of protein... this is insane
If you're a bachelor like me, then you may be particularly swayed by easy cooking solutions. One pasta I did try was a brand called Muscle Mac, which is basically a whey-enriched macaroni and cheese, comparable to Kraft Dinner (cue depression meals). It sounds awful, but for an occasional quick meal, it does the job: easy to prepare, tastes solid, good energy afterwards, and it has the protein to keep you on top of dietary needs.
This is how it looks...it tastes about the same lol
Low in fat, good protein content. Just watch out for the carbs: don't eat this on a laying around the house kind of day
This is the basics to what exists in the supplement world as far as pasta noodles are concerned. I'm gonna add onto this, either later today or tomorrow, and drop a little bit about sauces. There are ways to take regular alfredo sauce and make it more protein rich, good meats to use in a bolognese sauce besides ground beef (i like turkey and my mum has used caribou, which is amazing), and alternative flavour and spice combos which can help reduce sodium intake if you're at risk for heart disease and hypertension like my step-father
Brief Recap:
Last week we did peanut butter. It's a great food, healthy, with lots of fiber, but full of fat and only a little protein. The current supplemental solutions to this issue are protein enriched peanut butter (my personal favourite is P28) and powdered protein (i recently stopped using this in sandwiches, i mostly use it for baking)
What's the deal with pasta? (Jerry Seinfeld, 2018)
Pasta is a really flexible food that has an infinite number of preparation styles. The main benefit of Pasta is that its chocked full of carbohydrates. Anyone about to play a game or work a physical job would be well served to have a pasta meal beforehand. The issue with pasta, though, is similar to peanut butter: not enough protein and too much damn carbs. This thread is going to explore a bunch of the alternatives that exist to put you on game next time you're at the supermarket.
This thread is going to start out exploring three main alternatives:
- legume pasta
- vegetable pasta
- enriched pasta
Legume Pastas
I just started using a black bean pasta which I like a lot. It costs more, but it's wholly worth the cost in my book. It does have a bean flavour taste, but it's not strong. It's more of a texture than a strong taste. It's kind of like how different colour corn chips taste compared to regular corn chips.
Just to compare what I'm using now to what I used to eat, check out the nutrition labels below
Calories in my Black Bean Pasta
Calories in my old, regular grain pasta
Not only does it have fewer calories for the same amount of pasta, but it also has 7 more grams of protein, 10 more grams of fiber, 0 sugars, and 21 fewer grams of total carbohydrates. In one meal, this is a little healthier, but over the course of a year, the difference in nutrition value is crazy. There is a lot of weight loss potential here, and if you lift, the extra protein will help those gains.
There are other kinds which use Lentils, which might be more up your alley if you prefer lentils over straight-up beans. You can buy it in bulk for fairly cheap (In Canada, Bulk Barn is always doing deals for this stuff) and it has more iron than alternative pastas, which is great if you're prone to anemia like myself.
Calories in Bulk Barn's red lentil pasta
Organic Black Bean Calorie information - Even more protein with fewer calories
Zucchini Pasta is all the rage right now
The Spiralizer is a popular item these days. For the uninitiated, it's a simple machine that lets you take your own ingredients, like veggies, and make your own pasta. It's great for anybody who is weight conscious or likes to cook. However, if you're not that worried about controlling how your pasta gets made, there are companies that sell premade veggie pastas. Let's look at some of em.
Spinach pasta is a great move if you're someone who needs a good dose of iron for medical reasons. One of the downsides to vegetable pasta, compared to legume pasta, is that it has less protein. If you're just looking to cut pounds without bulking up with some muscle, then this is definitely the choice to make.
Veggie pasta with less calories, less fat, but also less protein
Shirataki Konjac, a japanese vegetable also known as Devil's Yam, is incredibly low calorie. An 85gram serving of Shirataki pasta can be as litle as 20 or so calories. If you really like to eat, and don't wanna eat less volume, switching to this pasta will allow you to eat the same quantity without dealing with the overeating consequences. It's pretty crazy how that works,
Shirataki Pasta with only 28 calories... damn
I have not found many good protein enhanced pastas around my way, so what I write here is just based on what I have read and know about the topic without much personal experience. I can't really comment on taste or body changes.
One really cheap way for companies to boost protein content in foods is with soy. It's cheap as hell due to the way farming subsidies work. What I hate about this, is that soy is really only useful for ladies, due to the estrogenic effects of the plant. If you're a lady who lifts, though, this is definitely a good staple to have.
Soy Protein enriched pasta, with only 150 calories and 17grams of protein... this is insane
If you're a bachelor like me, then you may be particularly swayed by easy cooking solutions. One pasta I did try was a brand called Muscle Mac, which is basically a whey-enriched macaroni and cheese, comparable to Kraft Dinner (cue depression meals). It sounds awful, but for an occasional quick meal, it does the job: easy to prepare, tastes solid, good energy afterwards, and it has the protein to keep you on top of dietary needs.
This is how it looks...it tastes about the same lol
Low in fat, good protein content. Just watch out for the carbs: don't eat this on a laying around the house kind of day
This is the basics to what exists in the supplement world as far as pasta noodles are concerned. I'm gonna add onto this, either later today or tomorrow, and drop a little bit about sauces. There are ways to take regular alfredo sauce and make it more protein rich, good meats to use in a bolognese sauce besides ground beef (i like turkey and my mum has used caribou, which is amazing), and alternative flavour and spice combos which can help reduce sodium intake if you're at risk for heart disease and hypertension like my step-father