A SPOONFUL OF OLIVE OIL HELPS THE SPAGHETTI GO DOWN!


I once read somewhere where Sophia Loren said that she owed everything to spaghetti or something to that effect. I took it to mean that she was healthy and thin because of spaghetti but who knows. Maybe she never said it and I just thought she said it so I could eat lots of spaghetti and not feel guilty about it. Now, I never thought of spaghetti as being unhealthy actually, I always thought spaghetti was one of the healthiest things I could eat (remember that I am a health nut wannabee with good reason). I am not saying that spaghetti is unhealthy necessarily but here is how to tell if your spaghetti is good for you or not (don't worry if you like the unhealthy spaghetti like I do, I have a damage control secret to share with you).


Unealthy spaghetti- If it's made with white flour, like most pasta, and smothered in cream sauce, it's unhealthy. From the Body Ecology perspective, conventional pastas feed pathogenic yeast and bacteria in your intestines. They disturb the growth of good microflora, and can lower your immunity. Candida, a systemic fungal infection, especially thrives on the natural complex sugars in pasta that can ferment in your gut and encourage candida overgrowth. How depressing! (info. from body ecology.com)

Healthy spaghetti-If it’s whole grain al dente (firm) pasta with unsweetened tomato sauce, it's healthy. Whole grain al dente pasta is much higher in fiber, vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. It's slowly absorbed into the bloodstream and doesn’t cause a blood sugar spike. (info. from bellaonline.com)

Let's say that you love the unhealthy pasta like me and for those days when you cannot have the wheat healthy pasta for whatever reason like you don't want to or the kids are threatening you if you make that "one" pasta again that not even the wild opossum that comes to eat cat food each night would eat -I have a damage control tip for you! I learned this from the incredible nutritionist Dr. Heidi Dulay. She said that if you had one teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil BEFORE you ate your pasta it would help by putting the good fats in from the olive oil and not allowing the bad fats in from the evil unhealthy but much loved spaghetti. I gave it a try and as a side benefit the extra virgin olive oil is great for your skin.

4 comments:

  1. Now I put about that much olive oil directly on my spaghetti, and D don't put any sauce on it, does that count as healthy? just wondering...enjoy your blog by the way....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Heidi,

    Also, knowing that you're a nut freak, eating nuts before eating the 'bad' pasta actually helps to absorb the bad sugar released from the pasta after consumption :) So, no more sugar spike

    ReplyDelete
  3. I actually really really like wholewheat pasta! I love that chewier texture and nutty (?) sort of flavour.

    If I have pasta it's usually a small serve of pasta with a vegetable-based sauce or lots of veges mixed in. I give my husband lots of veges too but extra pasta (he needs to eat more than me)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I just love your blog! I am a health fanatic want to be too. I have been hearing a lot about probiotics and prebiotics that help aid digestion. What do you know or have you run across how this is beneficial to our health?

    ReplyDelete

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