Pasta confusion!

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kathy s

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Type 2
I'm perplexed! I haven't had pasta since diagnosis so bought a bag of wholemeal. When comparing with my older packet sitting in tje cupboard I was shocked! Aldis essential ( white pasta) was 35.1 carbs per 100g whereas co ops wholewheat is 63g! I've checked and checked again! The only difference in Ingredients is the white also contains flour! I'm baffled I thought wholewheat was meant to be better, bit put off now!
 
Wholewheat is often made out to be better for you, but as you’ve found out, it still contains carbs! It may go through your gut slower, and therefore spike your sugars less, but everyone is different so the only way you’ll know how it affects you is to try some and see what happens. It probably contains more fibre which is better for your gut health, but isn’t necessarily better for you in other ways.
 
Cooked pasta is approximately 75% carbs, there is a difference between cooked and raw pasta. I dont know who eats raw pasta though 🙂
 
Unfortunately the wholewheat versions of pasta, rice and bread are pretty much the same as the white equivalent when it comes to carbs. They are however higher in fibre so better for your gut health but not necessarily for your diabetes.

Do you test your blood glucose levels after food? You may find you can tolerate a bit of pasta. I can’t tolerate rice at all but can cope with pasta slightly better. I do choose however to have neither because both spike my BG too much.
 
I do test so will try, I can't touch wholewheat bread so I'm not hopeful however I do seem to be ok with 4 baby potatoes!
 
And I will throw in my usual comment to this sort of thread and that is that the carb levels given on packets are probably a best guess and so subject to quite a large margin of error.

By all means look at the labels and use the numbers as a guide but eating some and measuring the effect might be more informative.
 
kathy s said:
I'm perplexed! I haven't had pasta since diagnosis so bought a bag of wholemeal. When comparing with my older packet sitting in tje cupboard I was shocked! Aldis essential ( white pasta) was 35.1 carbs per 100g whereas co ops wholewheat is 63g! I've checked and checked again! The only difference in Ingredients is the white also contains flour! I'm baffled I thought wholewheat was meant to be better, bit put off now!
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Like @Bruce Stephens I suspect one of the values quoted is for cooked pasta, so includes the water the dried pasta absorbed during cooking

I used to find packs like that infuriating, because we often mix sauce and/or veggies in with the cooked pasta so I can’t weigh the portion on the plate… plus depending on how you cook the pasta (just al dente, or oops-someone-is-late-arriving-and it-has-all-gone-quite-soft), there might be quite a bit more water weight in the cooked pasta - making the carb values even more vague.
 
kathy s said:
I'm perplexed! I haven't had pasta since diagnosis so bought a bag of wholemeal. When comparing with my older packet sitting in tje cupboard I was shocked! Aldis essential ( white pasta) was 35.1 carbs per 100g whereas co ops wholewheat is 63g! I've checked and checked again! The only difference in Ingredients is the white also contains flour! I'm baffled I thought wholewheat was meant to be better, bit put off now!
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Are you comparing them both the same way or is one cooked and one raw
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Like @Bruce Stephens I suspect one of the values quoted is for cooked pasta, so includes the water the dried pasta absorbed during cooking

I used to find packs like that infuriating, because we often mix sauce and/or veggies in with the cooked pasta so I can’t weigh the portion on the plate… plus depending on how you cook the pasta (just al dente, or oops-someone-is-late-arriving-and it-has-all-gone-quite-soft), there might be quite a bit more water weight in the cooked pasta - making the carb values even more vague.
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I need to re-read I checked weight not cooked or uncooked!
 
kathy s said:
I need to re-read I checked weight not cooked or uncooked!
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I did a quick google search for the Aldi one and the page returned didn't say, which isn't very helpful.

But anyway, if it's pasta it's got to be ~60-70% carbs raw because it's basically finely ground wheat with a smallish amount of egg (maybe spinach or tomato for flavour/colour). Might vary a bit (wholegrain is probably a bit lower) but it won't change that much.
 
Bruce Stephens said:
I did a quick google search for the Aldi one and the page returned didn't say, which isn't very helpful.

But anyway, if it's pasta it's got to be ~60-70% carbs raw because it's basically finely ground wheat with a smallish amount of egg (maybe spinach or tomato for flavour/colour). Might vary a bit (wholegrain is probably a bit lower) but it won't change that much.
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I checked Aldi ( white) unhooked. Co op wholewheat cooked! So 65g cooked weight, dint know what to do with that as I weigh it before cooking!!
 
35g carbs is right for 100g of cooked pasta. I presume the 63g carbs per 100g for the wholewheat is uncooked. Basically, if you’re diet only,I wouldn’t bother too much as pasta is much of a muchness. Just avoid it, have a small serving or change to one of the pulse based pastas that have less carbs.

I prefer pasta carbs to be given raw weight like @Bruce Stephens but I’m Type 1 so need to calculate properly to have the right insulin. Same with cous cous - carbs per raw weight is easiest.
 
I have avoided normal pasta and if I have pasta have the one which is either edamame bean or black bean as it is much lower carb.
Packets are often confusing. I am desperately confused by my breakfast granola ( a scattering only on the yoghurt and berries) but the Lizi's Low sugar seeds and nuts I have in the cupboard is 45g carb per 100g but a packet I saw yesterday in the Waitrose outlet in a garden centre with the same label is 55g carbs per 100g.
 
kathy s said:
I checked Aldi ( white) unhooked. Co op wholewheat cooked! So 65g cooked weight, dint know what to do with that as I weigh it before cooking!!
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The little carb cheat sheet note I keep on my phone suggests white pasta is often 73g-ish of carbs per 100g dry weight, and wholewheat pasta is generally 62g-ish of carbs per 100g dry weight. There are only minor differences from brand to brand, and supermarket to supermarket
 
Yes, I have a ‘pasta carbs’ figure in my head and don’t bother to change it for different brands. The only time I do is on the odd occasion I have pulse-based pasta or similar. I always think the cooked weight thing on pasta and couscous is weird because often it gives no clue as to how much raw weight you’d have to cook to get that portion size.
 
I used to eat raw pasta... weirdly, so does my daughter. Wife thinks it's bizarre.
 
harbottle said:
I used to eat raw pasta... weirdly, so does my daughter. Wife thinks it's bizarre.
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I can see the idea (it's just another kind of crunchy snack) but it doesn't appeal to me. I do occasionally air fry some ravioli (or other filled pasta).
 
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