The World's Comfort Food

It seems wherever you travel noodles are there for you. Soft, warm, filling ~ comforting as the billowy pillowed, worn out corner of your favorite couch. Nothing says, "home" like a warm mountain of doughy, rolled up spaghetti or a steaming bowl of Mama's chicken noodle soup. From the simplest ingredients; grains, water & sometimes eggs, comes an endless bounty of satisfying deliciousness. Pasta! Macaroni, spaetzle, trahanas, harusame, lokshen, ramen, spaghetti, udon, ragi, soba, lasagne - any way you say it - NOODLES - it's all good! But is it all good for you?

Pastas are not all created equal. Some versions are healthier than others.
Here's the deal:
The "whole" story...Firstly, white pasta, the most common in this country, is made from refined white flour. During the refining process the wheat does a striptease of its outer & middle layers (the bran and germ which contain most of the nutrients), leaving just the not-so-sexy naked starchy inner layer. So, having unrefined, fully-clothed 100% whole grain or 100% whole wheat pasta is nutritionally healthier. Truthfully, though, they are not going to taste the same, (read, not always as good) as the white pasta. If you love your white pasta the taste & texture takes a little getting used to. This is also a tricky area for sensitive insides. We want to be healthier but sometimes the fiber in the whole grain is harder to digest. So, what's a girl to do... I usually eat brown rice pasta by Tinkyada. It tastes really good, it goes down easy, has a soft texture and comes in several shapes. I also like Eden Organics kamut pasta (kuh-MOOT), a whole grain pasta that, to me, tastes better than whole wheat pasta. Other whole grain pastas to try are soba noodles (made from buckwheat), spelt pasta and quinoa pasta. Read labels. It's only 100% whole grain if it says "100%" followed by the type of grain or flour. (fyi, brown rice is automatically a whole grain).
If you're not ready to completely switch to 100% whole grain pasta, there are a lot of pasta blends out there, made from a combo of whole grain & refined flours. They are a good compromise for taste and are nutritionally healthier than the strictly white pasta. (a couple of these brands are Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Blend or Barilla's whole grain blend).



Fusilli Fofredo
Brown rice fusilli pasta
mixed with Earth Balance
and cashew cream.(my new favorite comfort food)
Click for cashew cream recipe.



There's more to the story...
The Glycemic Index thickens the plot.

Here's the not-so-scientific skinny:The refined white pasta contains a high quantity of high GI (glycemic index) carbohydrates. Digesting high GI foods sets a domino effect into motion. They release sugar into your bloodstream very quickly which then dramatically spikes your blood sugar level. Initially, you feel an increase in energy & you're feeling in a spunky good mood. This then forces the pancreas to raise insulin production to counteract the steep rise in blood sugar level (the more sugar in the blood, the more insulin is produced). Insulin lowers blood sugar by converting the sugar into stored fat. (High levels of insulin signal the body to store fat). Round-the-middle-goin'-nowhere-spare tire-muffin-top-waistline-fat! Essentially, insulin is like a cheerleader for Team Fat. Gimme an F-A-T! GOOOO FAT! (Insulin blocks the hormone that's responsible for burning fat; glucagon). So, what happens next? The insulin surge makes your blood sugar come waaaay down quickly. Metabolism slows down. (Yawwwwn. It makes me so sleepy tired - I lovingly and lethargically call it Carb Crash). Are you still with me? Wake up! The peak-&-valley insulin roller-coaster can ruin a perfectly good day at the park. When your blood sugar goes way down you get tired & your body craves energy so you get very hungry... which makes you eat more... more sugar... more insulin... more tired... more fat... lions & tigers & bears, oh my! ... and it goes on...and on... from the roller-coaster to the merry-go-round. This ride is exhausting!

Low glycemic index carbohydrates (the whole grain pastas) release sugar into your bloodstream more slowly, eliminating the body's need to produce extra insulin. Your blood sugar level stays nice and even. Digestion is quiet. When you eat lower GI foods or less carbs, the insulin cheerleaders are benched with duct tape tight over their puckery-pink lipsticked mouths. When insulin levels decrease glucagon levels increase and guess what? Glucagon is what burns the fat! Your metabolism & digestion rates improve. So, what does this mean for you? If your metabolism increases, more of what you eat is digested so you store less fat. When you decrease "Insulin the Fat Storer" you increase "Glucagon the Fat Burner". Team Fat loses and laments in the locker room. No sugar highs & lows. No Carb Crash. Ahhh. Serenity now!

In addition to the 100% whole grain pastas, Dreamfields Pasta, a white pasta, has 65% less digested carbs than other traditional white pastas. While the total number of carbs is the same as other white pastas, it's got a patented formula that protects all but 5 grams of carbs from being digested, lessening a rise in blood sugar. So, you could call this a low carb pasta. It looks and tastes like your old-fashioned, best friend white pasta and is a good solution if you have trouble digesting the whole grains or you just can't get used to the taste of whole grain pastas.

The Bottom line: Use your noodle! Replace refined white flour pasta with more nutritious and lower glycemic index carb pasta. Eating lower GI foods will keep your blood sugar level even, avoiding the highs and lows of Carb Crash and lessening weight gain.

Lasagna to Daiya For

(I think it may actually be pronounced DAY-a, not DIE-a but then my cute pun doesn't work). I have to say, this was surprisingly tasty & satisfying, all things considered. I made this lasagna with 1 box of Tinkyada brown rice lasagna noodles, browned up & seasoned ground chicken, Daiya dairy-free mozzarella style shreds & store bought marinara sauce. I always use the lowest sodium tomato sauce I can find, which happens to be my local supermarket brand, Wegmans Red, Ripe & Ready, and I doctor it up with herbs. (Next time I'll make it vegetarian with spinach & mushrooms, sans chicken, but I knew my kids wouldn't touch it made that way). It's the first time I made brown rice lasagna noodles and they cooked up beautifully. I couldn't tell the difference at all in the lasagna. The Daiya mozzarella is melty & stretchy and I'm becoming addicted to this stuff. As I've said before, it's truly the crack of vegan cheese. It's nothing like any of the other 'cheese wannabees'. Now, of course it's not actual mozzarella, and I'm not trying to put one over on anybody, but it does the trick without forcing me to eat soy cheese (yuck). It does contain safflower & coconut oils and I'm very IBS sensitive to all fats, but it doesn't bother me as much as cheese with lactose. It will get to me, though, if I have more than one piece. But, hey, one piece of lasagna is more than I've been able to eat in eons.

Note: I have read dozens and dozens of reviews about Daiya dairy-free cheese-like shreds from lactose intolerants as well as iron-stomached people and 99.9% of them are wildly, cheesegasmically positive. Restaurants in LA & NYC are now serving pizza & other vegan 'cheesy' dishes with Daiya so it's only a matter of time before that happens here in upstate NY. (A couple of vegan food brands are also using it - Amy's mac 'n cheese & Tofurkey pizza). I am also crazy about the stuff, but I'm in the apparently infinitely small percentile who in addition to the lactose intol. has IBS sensitivities too. I keep telling myself that it's a good thing because it keeps me from eating too much... of anything!