Pasta Gluten Free - Yes or no?

Hello guys,

it is just a curiosity. Basically In each market I use to go there is store dedicated to gluten free products. Since I live in Italy, pasta is one of the main products. I read that it is made of corn flow (a mixture of white and yellow corn). Also pasta made of rice flow is available, as well as buckwheat and oat flow.

Now, such products are more expensive than the other starch sources I use to eat (white rice, potatoes, squash), moreover I've considered them as a sort of processed foods, so I've always stayed away from them.

Should I considered them as a most favourable source of starches, and so could I think to introduce them on my weekly diet, or better to avoid them, even though I'd say they are better then gluten products?   

Thanks in advance.

Alessandro

Hey Alessandro,

I m sorry no one answered before! I m going to say what I think a Thrive expert would say... As a general rule don t eat it as your main source of starches. I wouldn t say it is bad like gluten products, but not something that should be eaten daily. I think if you eat once a week then is not a problem. If you join with your family or friends and they are all eating pasta and you really wish to eat some pasta then do it and you won t pay any price to your health. I also do this. I buy and eat good at home, but when I go to my mom s house I eat her pasta or whatever she cooked. If you decide to eat gluten free pasta then I d go first for the rice one, second the buckwheat and third the corn one. I understand you wan t to keep eating pasta being italian, the same way I want to keep eating some legumes being spanish. I think you should implement Thrive in your life as much as you can but being healthy in your mind at the same time and if that means eating gluten free pasta few times in a month then I d say go ahead. 

There are 14 meals with carbs in a week (7 lunch and 7 dinners). What I do is eating at least 11 of them potatos and white rice (Thrive). The other 3 are shared between legumes, buckwheat, gluten free pasta, etc. Even if it s not ideal it s suposse to be much better than before, when I never was eating white rice nor potates and I was eating absolutely every day legumes and grains (brown rice, etc). I wasn t eating any animal proteins and I wasn t eating any cooked vegetables. I simply can t drop so easily eating other sources of carbs, but I realize following thrive I don t have so much need of them like before.

@Antonio Alías Montoya I enjoyed reading your post.

In the beginning (I purchased Thrive about one year ago) I was a bit worried about the willing to avoid pasta, since I used to eat it almost everyday, however the other sources proposed in Thrive are equally satisfying for me. White rice and white potatoes were already present on my diet, but thanks to Thrive I've also discovered other sources like sweet potatoes and squash, and I really like them. I've always stayed away from legumes, since that I have a g6pd deficiency (favism).

On my cheat day when I go out for dinner I allow myself to have pizza, or a pasta dish, or a piece of cake. .

Actually I do not feel the lack of pasta on my diet, it was just a curiosity. In this sense what I guess is: white rice is better than pasta, even made of rice flour.

In my opinion and its not one that many agree with I think "gluten free" product that should have gluten in them (pasta) are equally if not worse than the original.

The question is "what are they replacing the gluten with?" 

Something natural?...Well gluten is naturally found in wheat, rye and barley. What if its some synthetic binder that has little/no research? Optimal would be to drop the original food as well as the substitution. But...that isn't going to be doable for the rest of you're life in my opinion. 

Also, on the note of past the problem is compounding in that people are altering more than one variable in the conversation. Most "How bad is pasta for you" conversations are talking about dehydrated pasta on the shelf of the grocery store. So we are talking about a highly processed product that has many preservatives added to it as well as a modification of the original ingredients(less egg, more gluten). So shelf pasta is arguably not evan pasta anymore than koolaid is fruit juice. 

So back to my original tangent; pasta fresh made really isn't that bad for you. Especially considering how many times a month are you going to make fresh pasta? Thats really the limiter of how much you will eat. Food for thought...

14 hours ago, Jeff Serven said:

Especially considering how many times a month are you going to make fresh pasta? Thats really the limiter of how much you will eat.

So every day if I can get my hands on this Philips pasta making machine. 

touche