my typical Italian Lunch at work

Hi all!

Since I am on step 10, I would like to build a complete lunch. Being at work I can get access to the company canteen.

Generally it offers italian typical dishes.

As First dish I can choose between pasta or rice(about 100 g) , with tomato souce on or pesto or similar sauces. whatever the sauces I choose, there is always a bit of aged cheese on (in order to add fat).

Second dish is about meat or fish with always green salad as side dish. on the salad I add a bit of extravirgin olive oil, and carrots, fennel or crude corn grains.

1 time a week I can choose another option:  a main dish with roasted potatoes, meat (usually chicken) and green salad.

Just to be sure: Are these options generally a good choice? is pasta as good as rice at lunch? Is there a lack of something?

I could choose sometimes a vegetable soup as first dish, but maybe this is a better choice for dinner!

Thanks to all!

I would generally go with the rice given its a white rice but the devils in the details. What type of pasta is it? What type of rice is it? Maybe its Rice-Pasta? 

I would ask what is in the sauce. Some of those can have some fairly high flour and sugar content. If its a tomato, spices and olive oil deal I woulnt sweat it but I would count it towards a bit of your carbs if it is something substantial. 

Second dish sounds good. What is a crude corn grain? 

Sounds like some decent options. 

thanks for your reply, Jeff. the pasta I mentioned is made of durum wheat semolina pasta ("semola di grano duro" in Italian, I hope I translated it correctly ). Do you repute it is a good option? Very bad for an Italian guy, if not!

Yes, when I'm at work I can put on pasta a tomato sauce, that is just like you described, but you're right, probably it has a sugar content ... anyway, generally I eat white rice (I think it is "parboiled rice") with no sauce added, eventually only a bit of  italian aged cheese like "grana padano" or "parmigiano reggiano", hope I explained myself well ... Is it a good choice?

regarding the crude corn grain...again, sorry for my bad english... I think a better translate is whole kernel corn.

Alessandro, 

As an Italian in Italy at a workplace that provides a lunch that sounds to be pretty good I would just keep it in the back of your mind that rice is a better option than pasta but, I wouldn't completely ditch the pasta. The tomato sauces isn't all that bad either but between the two you are really maxing out the carbs probably. I would make sure to hit the veggies hard. 

Thanks for the translation.  I googled "crude corn grain" and had no idea what it was. 

Cheers,

Jeff

Now after thinking about it I want to slightly change my answer to: I would avoid refined grains. I personally still do to this day and Im on year whatever of Thrive. But, what I was trying to express above and did so poorly was...

Thrive is a long term thing and in the long term you are going to get put into a situation to eat birthday cake or someone baked you a cookie or some other situation where you either have to eat the cookie or be rude. As long as you are sticking to Thrive (all levels) down the road when some pasta or cake comes along eat it, don't feel guilty and get back to business. 

What Im saying is in the long run don't sweat the small stuff because you will be doing so many things right it won't matter but for now in the course I would avoid refined grains and sugar to the best of your ability when the option presents itself. 

Thanks very much for your replies, Jeff! I think I've got what you mean, I'm going to act as you suggest! Thanks again!

On 2/22/2016 at 2:45 AM, Jeff Serven said:

Now after thinking about it I want to slightly change my answer to: I would avoid refined grains. I personally still do to this day and Im on year whatever of Thrive. But, what I was trying to express above and did so poorly was...

Thrive is a long term thing and in the long term you are going to get put into a situation to eat birthday cake or someone baked you a cookie or some other situation where you either have to eat the cookie or be rude. As long as you are sticking to Thrive (all levels) down the road when some pasta or cake comes along eat it, don't feel guilty and get back to business. 

What Im saying is in the long run don't sweat the small stuff because you will be doing so many things right it won't matter but for now in the course I would avoid refined grains and sugar to the best of your ability when the option presents itself. 

Hi Jeff,

in order to avoid refined grains as much as possible , I was thinking that, as I have opportunity, I could eat brown rice instead of white rice, basing that the latter is a refined grain. The same about durum whole wheat semolina pasta, instead of the classical refined one. Do you repute both are a better choice as starch?

If I see nutritional information of both products, I read that unrefined whole grains contain a higher amount of vitamins and fibers. I also read somewhere on the web that they could contain more antinutrients compared to refined grains, but this is not a problem which I should worry about.

What are your thoughts, Jeff?

Thank you!

White rice is "refined" to an extent but is  by far the best choice of the ones you listed. 

Whole grains do have more nutrients but they have even more anti nutrients that bind to them and chelate them leaving you with less that you started with.