Why so much pasta? - Food Revolution (2010) Discussion

[–] hp1510 14 years ago

It's a step though. There's a ton of different ways to make a dish with pasta, including using quinoa (which is a complete protein and definitely not empty calories), whole wheat pasta, exc. Having pasta once in a while is okay as long as you create the dish in a healthy way, and for a person who eats only processed junk and fast food 24/7 like the people on the show do, they are going to have to take baby steps to get to a solid, healthy ground.

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[–] nutsberryfarm 14 years ago

why so much? b/c pasta makes you run fasta!

I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"

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[–] philosophily 14 years ago

The point is that it isnt UNhealthy. Jamie Oliver isnt some freak nutritionist telling everyone to only eat tofu, protein shakes, and raw broccoli. Hes a chef that does recipes that are good for you while still tasting like real food, his stuff is not in the same category as extreme fitness food. The kind of food he makes will allow people to live long healthy lives, its not the kind of food you would eat if you are trying to get into top physical shape.

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[–] tessajae 14 years ago

Right. That's what I like so much about what he's doing. He's helping them eat real, everyday food for normal people. He doesn't push to omit carbs, fat, etc. etc. Really, it's all real, minimally processed food.

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[–] branenj001 14 years ago

Exactly, food these people can stick to eating for the rest of their lives. It's VERY hard for someone used to eating fastfood and frozen pizza and hot pockets for years at a time to suddenly just eating chicken and veggies. They need variety and healthier versions of what they are used to.

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[–] sjfilly 14 years ago

"Is it just me, or are a lot of Jaime's "healthy" dishes pasta dishes? Isn't pasta pretty much just empty calories? I don't think pasta is all that good for you."

This is true, but keep in mind its whats in the sauce.
Pasta is a healthy meal, I eat it a few times a week, but I exercise.

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[–] Kelt84 14 years ago

True. He can hide a lot of vegetables in pasta cauce, something that's not easily done with bread. Also remember these are growing kids - as long as the food is nutritious, and not just salt, sugar and fat, a few extra calories won't hurt.

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[–] TheAdlerian 14 years ago

I make homemade pasta all the time. The recipe isn't that much different than cake. It's flour, eggs, salt and a little water. You can use high protein flour and the eggs have protein as well, so you get carbs and protein. Which you get in certain types of bread, and of course cake.

The funny thing is when you say "pasta" is sounds better than bread and cake.

That's because people are morons.

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[–] creatures_like_us 14 years ago

if you noticed, he is not using regular white flour pasta. he is serving buckwheat pasta, which is way healthier

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[–] jwilcox154 14 years ago

No, pasta is not empty calories. The only "food" that has truly empty calories is soda. Pasta, on the other hand, has nutrients other than carbs, sodium, and calories. IIRC, Jamie is using whole wheat pasta which is even more healthy as has the the added benefits of insoluble fiber as well as containing more essential, naturally occurring nutrients. Although soda has empty calories having a soda once in a while is not going to hurt anyone. It is when someone drinks it like water that the problems begin.

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[–] masnuy 14 years ago

Also, lets not forget it's fast! I think pasta is a great alternative to fast food. I cook pasta and noddles when I don't have much time to cook.

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[–] otter 14 years ago

Good-quality semolina pasta isn't very fattening, it has a good glycemic index compared to other wheat products. And it's cheap, which counts for a lot with school kitchens, and it's a good way to get a lot of vegetables into a main dish. One of his stir-fry dishes had seven kinds of vegatables, and more than a cup of vegetables per serving, and FYI that's the kind of pasta dish I make at home.

Pasta contains no fats, and he's trying very hard to get the animal fats and saturated fats out of people's diets on this show - they're what lead to heart disease, and are a big part of what's made Huntington "the unhealthiest town in America". His pasta dishes aren't things like Mac-and-cheese or linguini alfredo, dishes like spagetti marinara or stir-fry have mostly "good fats" and loads of veggies, and are WAY better for you than McNuggets.

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[–] heavythumb 14 years ago

and why isn't it at least wheat pasta?

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[–] Johnnyjueves 14 years ago

I lived with italians and ate pasta almost every day and I can tell you that I never felt better or more energetic than with their diet. Also, pasta is great for going to the toilet regularly.

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[–] gg82 14 years ago

I was surprised that his test kitchen only taught 1 recipe to those 1,000 people. It would've been cooler to see some different recipes. He taught the overweight boy the same stir fry recipe, too. I got tired of seeing him stir fry again and again. I wish the show expanded on his other recipes.

He said he used buckwheat pasta for the high school's spaghetti meal. That's healthy and he had 6 or 7 veggies in the sauce. It was much better than fatty low grade meat on a white roll they used to have.

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[–] TheAdlerian 14 years ago

Just the other day I made homemade ravioli, which were great tasting, but not a great food. Firstly, I used bread flour because it has more protein in it. BUT, it's not a whole protein and unless you mix it with other foods that complete the proteins, you don't get much protein out of pasta.

In order to be healthy, you need 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. If you want to be muscular, then you need about 2 grams. This is an international medical standard. So, a diet with a lot of pasta is without much value, and is why many Italians and other people who eat a lot of flour are short.

As much as I love to make pasta, and my wife loves to eat it, as I stated, no matter what it's made out of, it's essentially cake in another form. Thus, it would be better to have some "fatty meat" with it, or alone, than to eat cake as your main source of energy.

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[–] gg82 14 years ago

The "fatty meat" I was referring to was hamburgers made with high fat ground beef (70/30, which is typical for frozen patties bought in large quantities). I can see how my post could come across as seeming like all meat was high in fat because I wasn't specific. I make burgers from lean beef (93/7), but that isn't feasable for schools because it's much more expensive.

It's fairly simple to make vegetarian meals with complete proteins. Beans and rice or a peanut butter sandwich with whole wheat bread supply all essential amino acids. It's a common misconception that vegetarian meals don't contain protein. Actually, students benefit from having a veg. option to expand on new menu choices. I'm not vegetarian, but I do enjoy veg. meals.

While I disagree with Jamie teaching 1,000 people the same stir fry recipe, he was hardly pushing a pasta heavy diet. He must've thought the people in his test kitchen would find stir fry fun and easy. I wish he had used a few different recipes so they had a variety of photot to put up on the wall. I haven't seen episode 6 yet. I'm sure future lessons in Jamie's kitchen included more variety than his noodle dishes.

I add sugar to my cake recipes and use different flour than for pasta (pasta is made w/ whole wheat flour, cake uses white flour). I don't consider cake and pasta to be nutritionally the same. Some people use white flour for pasta and cake recipes. It really depends on the cook. All foods are ok in moderation and I think you've said that yourself in other posts. I think we're actually in agreement. It's nice to see someone else who takes the time to look up info and cares about what they eat. I hope this show inspires more people to think about what they eat.

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[–] jenny_ball666 13 years ago

"why many Italians and other people who eat a lot of flour are short. "

LOL WHAT?! shut up

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