Rice? Pasta? Bread?

[sgc 538]

I'm preop and am dieting and still eat Pasta about once a week. It's not quite the boogeyman it's made out to be. One serving of Pasta has as much Protein as a jumbo egg which is widely recommended as a source of Protein. It also has the same amount of Iron as an egg and more Fiber. It also has less saturated fat and cholesterol than an egg. There is a lot worse you could be eating than pasta. My favorite pasta is No Yolks Egg Noodles. I guess if pasta doesn't have enough protein, I'll have to find something else to eat instead of eggs for Breakfast.

**EDIT** I also use fooducate.com to look up nutritional information on foods. They also have a great app which you scan barcodes and get instant nutritional information and grades. It gives my egg noodles a B+ rating.There are plenty of pastas that have A ratings. It's false to say there is no nutritional value in pasta.

Edited May 8, 2016 by sgc

[BJames42613 41]

I am three two months and a half out, I have lost 50 pounds and was never warned against rice, bread or Pasta... Well I was told to reduce it and eat brown rice and Pasta, and whole grain bread (I hate white bread anyway).

Twice a month I have pasta with salmon, or some rice with vegetables, even sushis (not a lot though). I have the occasional grilled slice of whole grain bread with hummus or cheese (French, Dutch and Belgian cheeses are quite good).

It's weird all the differences I see between my country and the USA. I was never asked to drink Protein shakes, or to stop coffee and tea, and still my weight loss is rather good, around 3 to 4 pounds a week for a month and a half, and I have not yet experienced a stall.

I always have to laugh when I see newbies say "I eat XX and I'm still losing weight!"

You can eat Twinkies and wash them down with milkshakes the first 6 months to a year and still lose weight.....

That was a little rude. He was just making a comparison between the differences in the suggestions from different countries. I thought the point of BariatricPAL was to be supportive, not critical.

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[Clementine Sky 707]

I am three two months and a half out, I have lost 50 pounds and was never warned against rice, bread or Pasta... Well I was told to reduce it and eat brown rice and Pasta, and whole grain bread (I hate white bread anyway).

Twice a month I have pasta with salmon, or some rice with vegetables, even sushis (not a lot though). I have the occasional grilled slice of whole grain bread with hummus or cheese (French, Dutch and Belgian cheeses are quite good).

It's weird all the differences I see between my country and the USA. I was never asked to drink Protein shakes, or to stop coffee and tea, and still my weight loss is rather good, around 3 to 4 pounds a week for a month and a half, and I have not yet experienced a stall.

Congratulations on your impressive weight loss thus far.

My nutritionist has bemoaned that a carb is treated as a dirty four-letter word, when in actuality it can have nutritional and even psychological benefits. It all depends on the quality of the carb, the quantity of it, and how each of us reacts to it. Having pasta or rice a couple of times a month as an accompaniment to healthy Proteins, or a slice of bread on an open faced sandwich on occasion is sound to me. It's not on par with consuming a plate of linguine alfredo as a common meal, or eating a loaf of white bread a week, but is instead balanced. She also only advocates having Protein Shakes immediately after surgery, or as a supplement if needed (I add some to coffee) rather than as a routine meal. I started having smoothies with high-protein Greek or Bulgarian yogurt (24 grams a cup), kale, and just enough berries or acai to mask the taste of the kale, about a month in, and have continued to have them regularly. There's around 22 carbs in the smoothie on average, but they're nutritious.

I think there are some basic fundamentals to losing weight after WLS that everyone should try to adhere to (don't gorge on junk food, as an obvious example), but that we also need to tailor our eating habits so that they fit us personally. For me, eating in a sensible way that is sustainable is crucial. In the past I've gone on restrictive low-carb diets that have ultimately been counterproductive for me because I'd end up feeling so deprived and craving carbs with such ferocity I'd cave in and overindulge in them, then berate myself. I'd lose weight, then gain it right back and then some. I also didn't feel as energetic or as sharp on low-carb diets. It's why it's mentally liberating to me to allow myself to have pasta, rice, bread, and fruit, and even chocolate, but in reasonable amounts. I've only had pasta and rice a few times in the past eight months - mainly at dinner parties - but feeling free to have it or another carb-heavy food in a small portion on occasion actually makes me want it less. I don't feel deprived. I've had other carbs that have a lower impact but satisfy my craving for them, like Brazilian Bites cheesebread that has 4.6 carbs per little piece, low carb almond flour muffins, or pancake bites by "Eggface" a few times a week. I've lost weight slowly, but have still met all of my goals and have been in the "normal" BMI range for my height for a while now. More importantly, I feel that I can maintain my eating and exercise habits and keep the weight off. Keep doing what works best for your body and your life.

[sgc 538]

Everyone needs carbs. The key is where you get the carbs. When nutritionists tell me not to eat fruit because of carbs, I know it's a fad just like egg beaters.

I know it will get compared to a Twinkie diet, but my family is Italian and have been eating Pasta for generations. My Grandparents, who were born and raised in Italy, lived into their 90's and were very healthy and ate Pasta until the day they died. They didn't even know what a carb was.

4 oz of egg noodles with a fresh whole Tomato as sauce, has 17 grams of Protein. To put that in perspective, two jumbo eggs have 16 grams of Protein, a 3 oz chicken breast has 18 grams, a 5 oz cup of Greek yogurt has 15 grams, and one of my Qwest Protein Bars has 20 grams. The pasta is right there with all the other popular high protein meal choices and it also offers a lot of Calcium, Vitamin C, Fiber, Iron, and a host of other minerals. You could even be radical and add a little grilled chicken breast to the pasta to give it a little more protein. I continue to plan on eating pasta weekly after surgery.

[RLS 3]

I Dr told me no bread Pasta or rice for a year that will be July 7th but truthfully I don't miss it

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[ashleymuddah 7]

Try some cloud bread it's carb less and made from just eggs and baking soda if I am remembering correctly!

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[karoberts17 33]

Even if you get the go ahead don't. My two youngest had birthdays in the last month and that meant party food and cake and even though my portions were sleeve sized I hit a stall. Yep 3 days of cheating and I've been stalled for almost a month. Portion size does not matter when it comes to carbs. Cake is cake, Pasta is Pasta, rice is rice. Your body doesn't care if your tummy is little or big it's going to hold onto those carbs for dear life. Just say no.

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[KristenLe 5,979]

I had my 2nd NUT appointment today and asked her what foods I'll need to avoid post-op. She said Pasta, bread and rice - not because of the carbs but more because they swell in your stomach. (So she said).

[sgc 538]

Even if you get the go ahead don't. My two youngest had birthdays in the last month and that meant party food and cake and even though my portions were sleeve sized I hit a stall. Yep 3 days of cheating and I've been stalled for almost a month. Portion size does not matter when it comes to carbs. Cake is cake, Pasta is Pasta, rice is rice. Your body doesn't care if your tummy is little or big it's going to hold onto those carbs for dear life. Just say no.

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fruit is fruit so I guess we need to avoid all fruit?

[karoberts17 33]

Even if you get the go ahead don't. My two youngest had birthdays in the last month and that meant party food and cake and even though my portions were sleeve sized I hit a stall. Yep 3 days of cheating and I've been stalled for almost a month. Portion size does not matter when it comes to carbs. Cake is cake, Pasta is Pasta, rice is rice. Your body doesn't care if your tummy is little or big it's going to hold onto those carbs for dear life. Just say no.

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Fruit is fruit so I guess we need to avoid all fruit?

Wow! Smart-ass much? The question was asked by someone early into their wls journey if they should eat carbs and I said no. A 1 cup serving of whole wheat pasta has 37g of carbs, white rice 44g while that chocolate cake I had for my 7 yr old's b-day had almost 60g in one slice. But my grilled chicken at lunch had no carbs and Eggface's ricotta bake only has 5g and a generic cup of mixed fruit has about 15g. As you can see even if you cut the portions of the pasta and rice they are still high in carbs compared to the foods most are allowed to eat in the first year, fruit included. The point I was making and maybe it didn't come across to an intellect such as yourself is why choose food that wasn't helping you lose weight before? Why eat it now especially when you're in the losing stage and not the maintaining stage? I learned the hard way. So ya fruit is fruit but it's better than rice so eat that instead and stop being so rude.

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[sgc 538]

The question was should they eat Pasta. Most single servings of fruit have at least 25 g of carbs and usually no Protein. Most pasta is about 30 to 40 grams with protein. If carbs are for life and so bad for you, shouldn't you avoid fruit?

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

Uh ... we could get ideological about starchy carbs or we could try to reason together about them.

Early on post-op no one wants to waste their tiny, swollen sleeve's real estate on starchy, carby foods. But plenty of carb foods -- like fibrous, colored veggies and fruits -- are very nutritious and healthy for WLS patients. I'd wager that all our surgery practices have told us that, as restriction eases, to eat vegetables, then fruits, then whole grains. All those foods have primarily carbohydrate macronutrients. The issue isn't their carbiness -- it's their Fiber and nutrient content.

Even some of the foods named in this thread's title can become minor characters in your weight loss menus. And later on, during maintenance they can play bigger roles.

For instance,`breads come in shades of bad to great. Yes, a big ole Einstein's bagel is worth 480 calories with 61 grams of carbs and only a trifling 2 grams of insoluble Fiber. Yes, it's got 20 grams of Protein, but we can find that much Protein in much lower-cal, lower-carb foods than Bagels. And then there are breads like Aldi's Fit & Active branded whole wheat bread that's only 70 calories for two slices, with 5 grams of insoluble fiber and 5 grams of protein. Heck, a few months post-op you could toast a slice of that, slap some mustard, turkey deli meat and Tomato slices on it and have yourself a delicious open-faced sandwich for lunch. You could even add some sliced veggies like carrots and celery and feel like you were in WLS grad school.

Even pastas range from bad to good. Obviously, those pastas made of refined, unsupplemented semolina flour (the kind we all grew up eating) don't offer much nutrition and don't encourage our new innards to restrict our food intake much. But there are other pastas out there made of whole grains or vegetables and protein-enhanced that are much better for us.

Of course, if these foods are triggers for you then you should avoid them altogether.

[sgc 538]

Pasta does have nutrients. The pasta I ate last night had 13 grams of fiber plus other minerals and it wasn't whole wheat. Add in a fresh whole Tomato used for sauce, and I also got a lot of Vitamin C.

[karoberts17 33]

Uh ... we could get ideological about starchy carbs or we could try to reason together about them.

Early on post-op no one wants to waste their tiny, swollen sleeve's real estate on starchy, carby foods. But plenty of carb foods -- like fibrous, colored veggies and fruits -- are very nutritious and healthy for WLS patients. I'd wager that all our surgery practices have told us that, as restriction eases, to eat vegetables, then fruits, then whole grains. All those foods have primarily carbohydrate macronutrients. The issue isn't their carbiness -- it's their Fiber and nutrient content.

Even some of the foods named in this thread's title can become minor characters in your weight loss menus. And later on, during maintenance they can play bigger roles.

For instance,`breads come in shades of bad to great. Yes, a big ole Einstein's bagel is worth 480 calories with 61 grams of carbs and only a trifling 2 grams of insoluble fiber. Yes, it's got 20 grams of Protein, but we can find that much Protein in much lower-cal, lower-carb foods than Bagels. And then there are breads like Aldi's Fit & Active branded whole wheat bread that's only 70 calories for two slices, with 5 grams of insoluble fiber and 5 grams of protein. Heck, a few months post-op you could toast a slice of that, slap some mustard, turkey deli meat and Tomato slices on it and have yourself a delicious open-faced sandwich for lunch. You could even add some sliced veggies like carrots and celery and feel like you were in WLS grad school.

Even pastas range from bad to good. Obviously, those pastas made of refined, unsupplemented semolina flour (the kind we all grew up eating) don't offer much nutrition and don't encourage our new innards to restrict our food intake much. But there are other pastas out there made of whole grains or vegetables and protein-enhanced that are much better for us.

Of course, if these foods are triggers for you then you should avoid them altogether.

Exactly. Well said.

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Uh ... we could get ideological about starchy carbs or we could try to reason together about them.

Early on post-op no one wants to waste their tiny, swollen sleeve's real estate on starchy, carby foods. But plenty of carb foods -- like fibrous, colored veggies and fruits -- are very nutritious and healthy for WLS patients. I'd wager that all our surgery practices have told us that, as restriction eases, to eat vegetables, then fruits, then whole grains. All those foods have primarily carbohydrate macronutrients. The issue isn't their carbiness -- it's their fiber and nutrient content.

Even some of the foods named in this thread's title can become minor characters in your weight loss menus. And later on, during maintenance they can play bigger roles.

For instance,`breads come in shades of bad to great. Yes, a big ole Einstein's bagel is worth 480 calories with 61 grams of carbs and only a trifling 2 grams of insoluble fiber. Yes, it's got 20 grams of protein, but we can find that much protein in much lower-cal, lower-carb foods than bagels. And then there are breads like Aldi's Fit & Active branded whole wheat bread that's only 70 calories for two slices, with 5 grams of insoluble fiber and 5 grams of protein. Heck, a few months post-op you could toast a slice of that, slap some mustard, turkey deli meat and tomato slices on it and have yourself a delicious open-faced sandwich for lunch. You could even add some sliced veggies like carrots and celery and feel like you were in WLS grad school.

Even pastas range from bad to good. Obviously, those pastas made of refined, unsupplemented semolina flour (the kind we all grew up eating) don't offer much nutrition and don't encourage our new innards to restrict our food intake much. But there are other pastas out there made of whole grains or vegetables and protein-enhanced that are much better for us.

Of course, if these foods are triggers for you then you should avoid them altogether.

Exactly. Well said.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using the BariatricPal App

Uh ... we could get ideological about starchy carbs or we could try to reason together about them.

Early on post-op no one wants to waste their tiny, swollen sleeve's real estate on starchy, carby foods. But plenty of carb foods -- like fibrous, colored veggies and fruits -- are very nutritious and healthy for WLS patients. I'd wager that all our surgery practices have told us that, as restriction eases, to eat vegetables, then fruits, then whole grains. All those foods have primarily carbohydrate macronutrients. The issue isn't their carbiness -- it's their fiber and nutrient content.

Even some of the foods named in this thread's title can become minor characters in your weight loss menus. And later on, during maintenance they can play bigger roles.

For instance,`breads come in shades of bad to great. Yes, a big ole Einstein's bagel is worth 480 calories with 61 grams of carbs and only a trifling 2 grams of insoluble fiber. Yes, it's got 20 grams of protein, but we can find that much protein in much lower-cal, lower-carb foods than bagels. And then there are breads like Aldi's Fit & Active branded whole wheat bread that's only 70 calories for two slices, with 5 grams of insoluble fiber and 5 grams of protein. Heck, a few months post-op you could toast a slice of that, slap some mustard, turkey deli meat and tomato slices on it and have yourself a delicious open-faced sandwich for lunch. You could even add some sliced veggies like carrots and celery and feel like you were in WLS grad school.

Even pastas range from bad to good. Obviously, those pastas made of refined, unsupplemented semolina flour (the kind we all grew up eating) don't offer much nutrition and don't encourage our new innards to restrict our food intake much. But there are other pastas out there made of whole grains or vegetables and protein-enhanced that are much better for us.

Of course, if these foods are triggers for you then you should avoid them altogether.

Exactly. Well said.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using the BariatricPal App

Uh ... we could get ideological about starchy carbs or we could try to reason together about them.

Early on post-op no one wants to waste their tiny, swollen sleeve's real estate on starchy, carby foods. But plenty of carb foods -- like fibrous, colored veggies and fruits -- are very nutritious and healthy for WLS patients. I'd wager that all our surgery practices have told us that, as restriction eases, to eat vegetables, then fruits, then whole grains. All those foods have primarily carbohydrate macronutrients. The issue isn't their carbiness -- it's their fiber and nutrient content.

Even some of the foods named in this thread's title can become minor characters in your weight loss menus. And later on, during maintenance they can play bigger roles.

For instance,`breads come in shades of bad to great. Yes, a big ole Einstein's bagel is worth 480 calories with 61 grams of carbs and only a trifling 2 grams of insoluble fiber. Yes, it's got 20 grams of protein, but we can find that much protein in much lower-cal, lower-carb foods than bagels. And then there are breads like Aldi's Fit & Active branded whole wheat bread that's only 70 calories for two slices, with 5 grams of insoluble fiber and 5 grams of protein. Heck, a few months post-op you could toast a slice of that, slap some mustard, turkey deli meat and tomato slices on it and have yourself a delicious open-faced sandwich for lunch. You could even add some sliced veggies like carrots and celery and feel like you were in WLS grad school.

Even pastas range from bad to good. Obviously, those pastas made of refined, unsupplemented semolina flour (the kind we all grew up eating) don't offer much nutrition and don't encourage our new innards to restrict our food intake much. But there are other pastas out there made of whole grains or vegetables and protein-enhanced that are much better for us.

Of course, if these foods are triggers for you then you should avoid them altogether.

Exactly. Well said.

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[Clementine Sky 707]

Even if you get the go ahead don't. My two youngest had birthdays in the last month and that meant party food and cake and even though my portions were sleeve sized I hit a stall. Yep 3 days of cheating and I've been stalled for almost a month. Portion size does not matter when it comes to carbs. Cake is cake, Pasta is Pasta, rice is rice. Your body doesn't care if your tummy is little or big it's going to hold onto those carbs for dear life. Just say no.

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I think a consideration to keep in mind is how each of us responds to tempting foods that are fattening and lacking in much nutritional value, like cake. My sister-in-law said that it's far easier for her to completely avoid even a bite of something like a brownie or other rich dessert because she has a "as long as I'm wet, I might as well dive all the way in" reaction to it and overindulges. Instead of just having a tiny portion to satisfy the desire for a taste, she uses it as a reason to go ahead and eat whatever she wants indiscriminately that day with the idea that tomorrow she'll be "good" and make up for it. For me, having a small portion actually helps me to keep the rest of my meals on track because it's more like scratching a little itch. Once I've had it, I'm satisfied and can move on without thinking about how much I'm craving the dessert, pasta, or whatever. I had a few bites of cheesecake and a small portion of pasta at a dinner party the weekend before last, and when I stepped on the scale on Monday (the only day I weigh myself) I saw that I'd lost more weight that week than the one prior. The small indulgences hadn't thrown me off course like the way a whole day or two of having them would. Everyone just has to figure out what works best for them.