Pasta that is higher in protein, with lower carbs, that tastes good (in my opinion) seems like a miracle. I know it’s not a complete protein being made from legume-based flour.
I’m cautiously optimistic because sometimes things are too good to be true.
I personally prefer the legume pastas to wheat pasta nutritionally. it depends on your goals though, “healthier” can be very relative. if you’re trying to carb load it might not be as optimal, but if you’re trying to reduce carbs and increase protein it might be ideal for you.
“healthier” is relative, especially considering regular pasta spans quite a few levels of “healthy”. What I like about bean-based (mostly chickpea) pastas is that they form a little bit more of a whole meal. I struggle to get a decent amount of protein, and I definitely need at least /some/ to feel full. But I also struggle to find the motivation to spend the time doing anything but something as easy as boiling pasta and putting butter and parmesan on it. Banza and alternatives let me do that without being overloaded on just carbs.
Depends on what you’re trying to do.
but looking it up here, and it has 35g of carbs per serving (2oz/56g). that doesn’t seem low carb at all.
Would you mind linking what you prefer to buy?
Btw, it’s all relative to your goals. I ride bikes for hours at a time and need the carbs so regular pasta is a staple in my diet. Others want (what it seems you’re looking for) less carbs and higher protein and if truly it does have less carbs I don’t see why that’s a problem. And you know it’s not a complete protein so supplement whats missing with eggs, milk, w.e (sorry don’t know your diet or restrictions).
Generally, you want to keep an eye on what are added to the products. Things like Gluten free products may have extra added sugar to deal with the product being less ideal for the general market’s palette.
It would be worth looking at the differences between regular pasta and legume pasta on the ingredients labels. However, legume pasta would have more protein and fiber than regular pasta from a macro-nutrient standpoint.
Yes it has more protein and fiber than regular pasta. That’s not to say that wheat pasta is bad for you though. Just that the chickpea pasta is slight better in those aspects.
I would just eat whichever you prefer. I find the Banza is helpful to bump up the protein if I won’t be adding meat to my pasta.
Chickpea pasta and red lentil pastas are great because they give you HIGHER PROTEIN and HIGHER FIBER when compared to an equivalent serving of regular pasta. Regular pasta has 7g protein per 100g (weight). Chickpea/Red Lentil pasta have 11-12g protein per 100g. Regular pasta has 2-3g fiber per 100g (weight). Chickpea/Red Lentil pasta has 5-6g fiber per 100g. Also the potassium levels also increase (due to the legume flour being used).
I did not like Banza, though. They got too mushy and broke down on a few pieces at the same amount of cooking time. Have been buying the “Barilla Penne Plus” (that comes in a yellow box) or the “Barilla Chickpea or Barilla Red Lentil Rotini” ones. Each one of them is just perfect and filling. These pastas are more about “macros optimization”. Good alternatives if you want to optimize your macros to tilt the protein/carb/fat ratios and to add some good digestion through the fiber (ensuring water intake is adequate to account for the increase in fiber).
It’s “healthier” in the sense that it has more protein and fibre, and probably more nutrients.
But if you’re getting plenty of fibre from vegetables and protein from other food sources, then white and/or whole wheat pasta can absolutely be part of a healthy balanced diet.
My dietitian recently told me to switch out my pasta with Banza chickpea pasta– it has higher fiber and more protein than regular pasta, without added sugars. Personally, as someone trying to maintain after losing ~60 lbs (over two years), it’s a better fit for my nutritional goals. Are there better pasta alternatives out there? Sure, probably. But it depends on your needs and goals. It still has ~32g carbs per serving, so if you’re trying to go low-carb, it may not be the best substitute. It’s hard/impossible to generalize what ‘healthy’ means here because it really depends on your needs.
It’s not any better overall, just has chickpeas instead of wheat. It also has a binder, so it’s more ingredients. It’s more nutritious/healthier than white pasta, but comparable to whole wheat pasta imo. The extra protein isn’t that substantial.
I bought a box a few weeks ago and need to try it out. The only thing I would think about is not the carbs but the fiber load, which this has a nice amount for a serving. That’s beneficial in itself!
There is no real diet where you do not get enough of any essential amino acid so the complete protein thing doesn’t matter (everything is “complete” anyway, they just don’t have the ideal proportion in the particular food which doesn’t matter).
It depends on the state of your gut health. Bean and lentil pasta are touted as being higher in protein and nutrients than wheat or other gluten-free pasta, however, they are particularly rich in anti-nutrients. Anti-nutrients are substances that naturally occur in plant foods that block or interfere with how our body absorbs nutrients from food, especially minerals (calcium, magnesium, etc) and trace elements (zinc, selenium, manganese, etc). Anti-nutrients are found in their highest concentrations in grains, beans, legumes and nuts, but can also be found in leaves, roots and fruits of certain varieties of plants. The major anti-nutrients found in plant-based foods are phytates, tannins, lectins, oxalates, etc. That’s why I personally prefer white rice pasta. White rice is almost 100% free of anti-nutrients and digests super easy / quickly.
Mh, the question is not a yes/no answer, unfortunately.
Legumes are great and are an extremely healthy alternative to meat-based proteins.
Now, pasta is a cereal. You need cereals in your diet, in most of the diet plans it is supposed to be part of each and every meal you have (5 times a day in the Mediterranean diet).
So yeah, if you don’t like legumes, pasta legumes is a great alternative. But it’s an alternative to legumes/proteins, not to pasta.
Pasta is not unhealthy at all. In fact, you need it. The problem is in the quantities.
The short answer is: no. Cause it’s not pasta.
Eat legumes, they are great :)