can anyone help this pasta/rice loving family to reduce carb intake please

supermassive

lostinrates wrote: »

Re pasta, did any one see the horizon (?) programme in which it was shown that cooling and reheating it changed the GI preferably.


For us here a portion of pasta is 75/80 grams. Millions of Italians eat lots of pasta with out obesity but portions are often smaller than a typical uk portion.

That's a measly amount of pasta! Being 50% italian myself, as a child pasta used to be dished up in big bowls with about 4 ladles full of the stuff coming my way :rotfl:

LilElvis

Isn't it possible that the problem isn't with the rice or pasta, but rather what is served with it?

For example, last night I made crab linguine. 100g of crabmeat, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, chilli, parsley, couple tbsp olive oil to serve 2 people (had some rocket dressed in lemon, oil and some parmesan with it). On Saturday I served the same quantity of pasta, but with a chicken/ tequila/ lime/ coriander sauce that also contained about 100g of butter and a 600ml tub of double cream (:eek:) for 4 people.

Same quantity of pasta, but a huge difference in the number of calories!

lostinrates

supermassive wrote: »

That's a measly amount of pasta! Being 50% italian myself, as a child pasta used to be dished up in big bowls with about 4 ladles full of the stuff coming my way :rotfl:

My husband is Italian . Never had it dished up labels ful at a time . May be its different in different families and areas? My husband is Toscano and we lived in Milan for a while some years ago and I've only spent time in the north ( got as south as Rome once!).

I've never found the ( northern) Italians to be gluttonous eaters really. And a primo portion of pasta might be smaller thana very hungry persons main meal might be larger, not here though. We almost exclusively often have pasta as a main meal, but tend to have a 'primo' before, like crudite or a salad, and often have more sauce than one might have in Italy, ( often to get more veg in to the meal) so 75gr for a main meal works out perfectly.

When one visits close friends, like dh's family friends, I found when they offer pasta they tend to say...how hungry are you and the answer is expected in dry grams of pasta weight. I never heard anyone say 100 gr except kids.

supermassive

lostinrates wrote: »

My husband is Italian . Never had it dished up labels ful at a time . May be its different in different families and areas? My husband is Toscano and we lived in Milan for a while some years ago and I've only spent time in the north ( got as south as Rome once!).

I've never found the ( northern) Italians to be gluttonous eaters really. And a primo portion of pasta might be smaller thana very hungry persons main meal might be larger, not here though. We almost exclusively often have pasta as a main meal, but tend to have a 'primo' before, like crudite or a salad, and often have more sauce than one might have in Italy, ( often to get more veg in to the meal) so 75gr for a main meal works out perfectly.

When one visits close friends, like dh's family friends, I found when they offer pasta they tend to say...how hungry are you and the answer is expected in dry grams of pasta weight. I never heard anyone say 100 gr except kids.

Mine are from southern Italy. I think there may be a difference (although sea food was always avoided... I thought it was popular in Italy haha)..

It might also be a combination of Italian roots paired up with coal miner grandparents from the UK who were the "full belly, satisfied husband" kind. Plus Italians are notorious feeders. Pasta for everything. "Birthday pasta" "Wedding pasta" "Funeral Pasta" :rotfl:

It contributed to my weight gain as a teenager that went from a 3.5 stone short 8 year old to a 18.5 stone short 18 year old :rotfl: 9 years after realising that carbs are actually the enemy, I'm maintaining a healthy 10st weight (varies by about 10lbs depending on time of year... thanks xmas..) rather easily.

I do enjoy reading the comments of people who deny carbs are a problem or think it's the "friends of the carbs" like sauces etc that are the problem. Any doctor will tell you that eating several pasta dishes & several rice dishes a week with an inactive lifestyle is ridiculous.

Not to mention that these days, any rice/pasta/bread you buy is almost nutritionally redundant other than carb content... and starch. Have your pasta sauce on chicken/courgette/cauliflower/etc instead.

LilElvis

supermassive wrote: »

I do enjoy reading the comments of people who deny carbs are a problem or think it's the "friends of the carbs" like sauces etc that are the problem.

Oh, how very clever! By serving my sauce containing 600 ml of double cream over courgette ribbons rather than tagliatelle will miraculously make it healthy :rotfl:

adouglasmhor

supermassive wrote: »

Mine are from southern Italy. I think there may be a difference (although sea food was always avoided... I thought it was popular in Italy haha)..

It might also be a combination of Italian roots paired up with coal miner grandparents from the UK who were the "full belly, satisfied husband" kind. Plus Italians are notorious feeders. Pasta for everything. "Birthday pasta" "Wedding pasta" "Funeral Pasta" :rotfl:

It contributed to my weight gain as a teenager that went from a 3.5 stone short 8 year old to a 18.5 stone short 18 year old :rotfl: 9 years after realising that carbs are actually the enemy, I'm maintaining a healthy 10st weight (varies by about 10lbs depending on time of year... thanks xmas..) rather easily.

I do enjoy reading the comments of people who deny carbs are a problem or think it's the "friends of the carbs" like sauces etc that are the problem. Any doctor will tell you that eating several pasta dishes & several rice dishes a week with an inactive lifestyle is ridiculous.

Not to mention that these days, any rice/pasta/bread you buy is almost nutritionally redundant other than carb content... and starch. ..........

Starch is a carb.

adouglasmhor

LilElvis wrote: »

Oh, how very clever! By serving my sauce containing 600 ml of double cream over courgette ribbons rather than tagliatelle will miraculously make it healthy :rotfl:

280 calories in the cream, plus 350 in 75g of tagliatelle, compared to 280 calories in the cream, plus 54 calories for 300g of courgette
straight away you have saved 296 calories, plus upped your fibre and vit c intake.

You didn't think that through did you?

PenguinOfDeath

Yorkie1 wrote: »

The Hairy Dieters cookbooks have recipes which are lower in calories, and emphasise the need for smaller carb portions. The recipes are pretty tasty too.

I have all these books, they're fab. They recommend a 50g portion of pasta per person, this horrified me at first but I now find it more than adequate for most meals, I just add more veg or protein to help fill us up.

lostinrates

supermassive wrote: »

Mine are from southern Italy. I think there may be a difference (although sea food was always avoided... I thought it was popular in Italy haha)..

It might also be a combination of Italian roots paired up with coal miner grandparents from the UK who were the "full belly, satisfied husband" kind. Plus Italians are notorious feeders. Pasta for everything. "Birthday pasta" "Wedding pasta" "Funeral Pasta" :rotfl:

It contributed to my weight gain as a teenager that went from a 3.5 stone short 8 year old to a 18.5 stone short 18 year old :rotfl: 9 years after realising that carbs are actually the enemy, I'm maintaining a healthy 10st weight (varies by about 10lbs depending on time of year... thanks xmas..) rather easily.

I do enjoy reading the comments of people who deny carbs are a problem or think it's the "friends of the carbs" like sauces etc that are the problem. Any doctor will tell you that eating several pasta dishes & several rice dishes a week with an inactive lifestyle is ridiculous.

Not to mention that these days, any rice/pasta/bread you buy is almost nutritionally redundant other than carb content... and starch. Have your pasta sauce on chicken/courgette/cauliflower/etc instead.

I think spoon after spoon of most things, as you describe, combined with inactive lifestyle, as you describe, would be an issue for many and weight gain.


Interestingly some years ago, while it was there Italy had the fastest growing rate of childhood obesity. This is obviously not to do with pasta, which has been a staple food for years. I do not know what the figures are now.

onlyroz

adouglasmhor wrote: »

Udon doesn't contain any more protein that ordinary noodles and Soba contains more as it is made with buckwheat.

But they'll both be better for you than traditional dried pasta made from durum wheat.