Cooking Right

Over the years, we have altered our lifestyle education to reflect the better our understanding of the “truth”.  One of these truths that has not changed much, is our view of pasta.  Yep, that classic easy meal that so many of you would say “oh, we don’t eat much pasta”, yet you still find a way to consume it once a week.

I understand, I grew up in a household where pasta was king.  We had spaghetti weekly as a minimum, lasagna and manicotti were also weekly choices.  And when my mother made them, it was a serious amount of food, capable of supplying at least two more meals with the leftovers.  Basically, all we ate was pasta.  Many of you get that this is not a wise decision, but how about once a week, it can’t be that bad, right?

So the answer is that it can, especially if you are someone looking for some weight loss, or for some hormonal changes, or some decrease in inflammation based on diet.  You really cannot accomplish that if you are eating grains, especially refined grains.  I am not saying that you can never eat pasta again, but you can’t when you want to see something big happen in your health life.  The problem doesn’t come just from the high carbohydrate (means it turns to sugar in your blood stream) load, but it also has something to do with the inflammatory response of this food.  If you look back at the daily sprouts on inflammation, you can review some of that info to better understand this.

The real issue is that these foods are rich in lectins (not leptin), which are protein molecules that play a role in digestive system distress.  Some of the research suggests a direct link with lectin consumption and leptin resistance.  So, all of this to simply say, you should stay away from pasta!  And that being said, I need to make sure you know how to make pseudo pasta.  Funny thing, is that it is good, and very pasta like, and my almost four year old thinks the “green pasta” is GREAT!

First thing is that you do need a spiral slicer if you want it to work well.  Otherwise you can use a potato peeler and attacking a zucchini will never be more fun.  I had a meeting at one of my patients homes recently, and they prepared thai noodles for dinner.  Though I had used zucchini noodles before, I hadn’t had them in a thai dish that was perfectly healing diet, or “advanced diet” approved.  This was a great step for me to realize that we could do some great things with these noodles.

So take the step, and you will be shocked at how great these are.  So the pictures are a simply thai dish, I don’t have a recipe for you (because as usual this was thrown together), but I do have some guidelines.  I made some zucchini noodles, I grilled some chicken, then mixed up some: seasonings, peanut butter (trader joes brand, organic), with some coconut milk.  Once the sauce was hot I poured that over the raw “noodles” (which could be cooked if you prefer), and let the sauce mildly soften them.  Chop up the chicken, mix it up and viola!

We enjoy the noodles raw with olive oil, or lightly steamed with tomato sauce, or sauteed with anything!  Be healthy, Eat healthy, God Bless!  – Dr. E