Six common beliefs addressed, Part 251 - Alternative Pasta Edition

1. I miss having pasta dishes so I came across "grain free" Banza noodles and was wondering if they would be a good alternative.

I am not sure why people in the "low carb" community think that gluten free, grain free and organic have any meaningful effect on their metabolism. Are you treating metabolic syndrome or are you just going "green"? This group is for metabolic conditions, not trendy co-op living.

Banza are alternative noodles for people who cannot consume grain based products due to an allergy and/or autoimmune condition. Banza is not low in carbohydrates. It has about 32 grams of carbs per serving, compared to whole wheat pasta which has approximately 38 grams of carbs per serving.

"Per serving" is the operative word that so many people tend to ignore. This means that if you go over the serving recommendation, the grams of carbs also go up. So Banza is about the same as regular pasta but it uses chickpea flour instead of wheat or other grain based flours.

When people bring up these items, they create all kinds of excuses as to why they are able to consume them. Such as:

• "I am not diabetic. I am only prediabetic so I can afford to eat noodles." - Well, if that was the case, then you can afford to eat grain based noodles at half the price because they are the same thing. The reality is that people with prediabetes have to watch their carb intake, the same as a diabetic, since they can easily lose their blood glucose control when any type of glucose is introduced through diet. The loss of blood glucose control is the engine that drives the metabolic machine towards full blown diabetes.
• "Banza has a lot of fiber." - Banza has a lot of carbs. Fiber is irrelevant, particularly the type of fiber in Banza. It's chickpea FLOUR. This means the chickpeas have been completely disintegrated along with their fiber. Chickpea flour is very different from whole chickpeas. There is a reason the word "whole" is used when describing real food. Food that has been highly processed as this chickpea flour is, is food we were not meant to consume.
• "Banza has a lot of protein." - Banza has a lot of carbs. The protein you should be getting is complete protein from meat. Nothing else that Banza has removes its carb load. Whatever else it has, comes along with the carbs.
• "Banza is healthy." - Banza is basically garbage. It's a novelty as all pasta is. Pasta is simply a processed food regardless if it's Banza or Barilla. It is only considered "healthy" because it's plant based. Animal products cannot put "healthy" on their packaging but any plant based junk can.
• "Chickpeas can help you better control blood glucose." - That is nonsense. The only thing that "controls" blood glucose is insulin. When you lose your insulin function, you will lose blood glucose control. You will lose insulin function if you keep introducing items into your diet that interfere with proper blood glucose regulation, like chickpea flour.

So, if you are someone who eats the Standard American Diet (SAD) but has celiac disease or wheat gives you terrible heartburn, then you can swap your grain based pasta for Banza. But if you are someone who is trying to take control of their metabolic syndrome, then you need to stay away from Banza. You may be missing pasta dishes now but I guarantee that you will not miss insulin injections later.