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On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, I’m sharing the best healthy pasta substitute and answering a viewer who asked: is pasta bad for you?
At the end of this post, I’ll also be sharing a few low calorie and low carbohydrate pasta recipes.
This is another post from our #TBT Q&A series.
These are questions from our #LLTV Q&A series, that we filmed for our Live Lean TV YouTube channel back in 2012.
So first, I’m going to share my answer to this question from 2012.
Then I’ll answer the same question again today, with more detailed recipes.
Melanie from Facebook asks: what are your thoughts about pasta? I tend to eat spaghetti and macaroni once a week with minced vegetables?
Well if you’re only consuming pasta once a week, by all means, go ahead and do it.
If you want, you can call that your cheat meal, or whatever you want to call it.
Just don’t eat pasta every single day or even every second day.
Pasta is very high in carbohydrates, and that’s going to throw your insulin levels all over the place.
If you’re not familiar with your insulin, insulin is a hormone in your body that is often referred to as the fat storing hormone.
Therefore you really need to control your insulin levels to maintain your weight or lose fat.
Traditional forms of pasta, such as spaghetti and macaroni, are classified as processed and refined carbohydrates.
Other popular refined carbohydrates include bread, cereal, and other sweets and drinks filled with added sugar.
Speaking of bread, if you’re looking for healthy bread alternatives, I did a similar post on the best bread substitutes here.
Refined carbohydrates are primarily made from highly processed grains that have been stripped of fiber.
Pasta is also referred to as a simple sugar because it is quickly digested by the body since most of the fiber has been removed.
Unfortunately the standard American diet (SAD) contains a lot of calories from refined carbohydrates, especially comfort foods like spaghetti and macaroni and cheese.
Pasta, such as spaghetti and macaroni, are calorie dense, meaning they are high in calories, for a small amount of food.
Plus, they are low in overall healthy hunger crushing nutrients such as protein, fat, and fiber.
For example, a serving of pasta is usually over 200 calories, which is comprised mainly of refined carbohydrates.
A serving of grilled vegetables is closer to 50 calories, plus loaded with nutrients.
Plus your body doesn’t burn as many calories when digesting processed food when compared to animal protein and fibrous vegetables.
Since pasta is lower in fiber, it is quickly digested, thus spiking your blood sugar.
Since your digestive system is not built to digest that amount of sugar, at that rapid speed, it increases the production of the insulin hormone.
If you’re not familiar with insulin, it is often referred to as the fat storing hormone, because it stores excess sugar in the fat cells.
When your blood sugar spikes, insulin is produced to quickly remove the excess sugar from your blood stream.
This can cause a blood sugar crash and alters your neurotransmitters, thus making your feel even hungrier and craving more calories throughout the day.
Since carbohydrates increase water retention, by removing pasta from your diet, you’ll help your body in shedding unnecessary stored water weight.
This can help make you feel leaner, tighter, and less puffy.
A diet high in refined carbohydrates, like pasta, can cause metabolic programs as well as increasing the risk of diabetes.
When you’re not active, this increases your risk even more.
So based on all this, why is the government’s food pyramid telling us to eat 6-11 servings of pasta, bread, cereal per day?
*shake my head*
Well if you’re eating a lot of pasta, I recommend you swap out refined pasta with fibrous carbohydrates.
The following fibrous carbohydrates are the best pasta substitutes.
If weight loss is your primary goal, a few of these pasta substitutes are also lower in carbohydrates and calories.
Zucchini is packed full of fiber and nutrients, and very low in carbohydrates and calories.
This makes spiraled zucchini noodles the perfect spaghetti or linguine substitute.
Use a vegetti to make the zucchini into noodles or slice thinly with a peeler.
Tastes great, won’t spike your fat storing insulin, and is a free food, so eat as much as you like.
Try this Low Carb Paleo Zucchini Pasta: Shrimp Spinach Linguine.
Prep Time | 10 minutes |
Cook Time | 20 minutes |
Servings |
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Nutrition Info (per serving):
Calories: 344
Protein: 27g
Carbs: 5g
Fat: 24g
In our Live Lean Macaroni and Cheese recipe, we also use zucchini as the macaroni and squash as part of the cheese mixture.
We used swapped out spaghetti noodles for thinly sliced sweet potatoes in this delicious paleo pasta bolognese recipe.
May sound strange, but it’s delicious.
Here’s the full Macaroni and Cheese recipe.
Prep Time | 10 minutes |
Cook Time | 30 minutes |
Servings |
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Ingredients
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Calories: 186
Protein: 10g
Carbohydrates: 14g
Fat: 10g
Use spaghetti squash, winter squash, or summer squash in your favorite pasta recipe.
If you’re wondering how to cook spaghetti squash, check out this spaghetti and meatballs recipe.
Prep Time | 10 minutes |
Cook Time | 20 minutes |
Servings |
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Ingredients
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Calories: 411
Protein: 46g
Carbohydrates: 14g
Fat: 19g
Although higher in calories and carbohydrates than zucchini and spaghetti squash, sweet potatoes are packed with antioxidants, fiber, and other essential vitamins and minerals.
We used swapped out spaghetti noodles for thinly sliced sweet potatoes in this delicious paleo pasta bolognese recipe.
Prep Time | 5 minutes |
Cook Time | 15 minutes |
Servings |
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Ingredients
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Calories: 481
Protein: 40g
Carbohydrates: 42g
Fat: 17g
Simply use a peeler to thinly slice up some carrots and you’re good.
Check out this carrot pasta recipe here.
Prep Time | 5 minutes |
Cook Time | 20 minutes |
Servings |
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Calories: 476
Protein: 43g
Carbohydrates: 31g
Fat: 20g
Sure, whole grain pasta contains more nutrients than white pasta.
However, whole grain pasta is only a few points lower on the glycemic index, so be aware.
Pasta sauce is a classic example of a hidden sugar bomb, as some brands contain over 10 grams of sugar per serving.
The pasta sauce ingredients list should only include:
Lastly, please make sure you earn your pasta, and turn it into gains, by following a properly structured workout program.
To find the best workout program specific to your goals, fitness level, and access to equipment, go take our Live Lean Body Quiz.
I’ll put the link in the video description below.
And in the comments below tell me, what is your favorite healthy pasta substitute?
Thanks for watching and keep Living Lean.
Start by taking our FREE Live Lean Body Quiz to get access to the best program specific to your goals, current fitness level, and access to equipment.
Take the Free Live Lean Body Quiz
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.
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