I’ll be the first to raise my hand for people who like pasta. Basically pasta of all kinds. Prepared with all kinds of stuff. What I found out tonight, though, is that pasta is really not my friend. Yeah. It tastes good. Especially if there is some nice sauce or a meaty ingredient. But pasta by itself has a ton of calories.
Tonight my wife made this pasta dish with some whole grain penne pasta. The whole grain part was supposed to make it healthy. Maybe so but it didn’t reduce the whopping 210 calories per serving that was listed right on the label. In fact, of all the ingredients in the little casserole she made, the pasta had the most calories per serving of any of the ingredients.
Now, to be fair, not all ingredients have the same serving size. This is the dirty little secret of the food industry. A serving of pasta is different from a serving of mushroom soup is different from a serving of milk is different from a serving of just about anything else. But, even trying to calculate for the differences, pasta still has a ton of calories.
I guess that’s why there is this theory of weight reduction that if you stay away from anything white – sugar, starches (including pasta), dairy – that you will reduce your weight and be more healthy, to boot. Well, that’s approach is a little extreme for me but I’m finally beginning to get the picture that starches like pasta, rice, bread, potatoes and all the other great tasting stuff has a lotta, lotta calories which need to be burned off.
Of course, another side of this is that I can’t just eat one serving of a pasta dish. Impossible. So, you see, it can really add up in a hurry. The worst part is I have my official weigh-in day tomorrow. I’m not looking forward to it.
I have a huge weakness for pasta…and for rice. And I’m with you – can’t just one helping of either.
I’m also a sucker for Chinese food – more rice!
Susan recently posted..Ethics Wanted
I’m with ya! I’m a rice fanatic. But the other starches aren’t left out – potatoes of all kinds, breads …and sweets! Don’t even get me started.
I can skip the sweets, and am not real big on fried stuff, but I love baked potatoes. I’ve started putting salsa on my baked potato instead of sour cream. That helps (and is surprisingly tasty!). I do like bread, but haven’t had plain white bread in years. I was shocked at how tasteless Wonder bread is when I last had it – after all I grew up building a strong body 12 ways!
My biggest downfall is chips and salsa – I could live on the stuff.
Susan recently posted..Ethics Wanted