By Mike Thayer
Sure, breads, pastas and rice are tasty, but you don't really need any of it to maintain health. I contend those things are the main contributors to weight gain in the American diet. Breads, pastas and rice aren't even the most efficient fuel, not the best carbs for intake. Not even the so-called "whole grain" varieties.
You can get all the dietary fiber and carbohydrates you need from fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
Think about it, there's not a Panera Bread or Noodles & Company out in animal kingdom, all the wildlife out there does just fine without such things, in fact, they're all the better without it. Animals have all the energy, nutrition and fiber they need from fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. No breads, pasta or rice required!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying a person should go without the occassional helping of spaghetti, or not enjoy some garlic bread. And how can you truly enjoy some stir fry without some rice or noodles to go with it? All I'm pointing to is, your body does not NEED those things as staples in your diet.
Unfortunately, treating breads, pasta and rice as staples is what we've been trained, er, brainwashed to do. You've been *educated* to think that you *need* to eat wheat bread or brown rice. You've been fed the line that in lieu of whole grains, that bread or pasta "enriched with Vitamins" is a *healthy* alternative. Not true, you don't *need* those things. You're being marketed. The American diet is heavy on the consumption of breads, pasta and rice, it's cheap and readily available. A muffin, bagel or toast with breakfast, a rueben on rye sandwich for lunch, a soft pretzel at the mall for a snack, a chicken and rice dish for dinner...... Too many junk carbs! That's right, junk carbs. That's really what all kinds of breads, pastas and to a lesser extent, rice, are. Your body doesn't *need* them, not even a little bit, especially to the extent the stuff gets pushed on us either by the government's recommended daily intake or by marketing. Tasty? Absolutely. But staples? Not at all.
We've got the government telling us we *need* to eat breads, cereals and whole grains as a regular part of our diet but that's simply not true. Then there's all the food companies producing all kinds of tempting offerings in the refrigerated/frozen section of the grocery story, the breakfast burritos, pizza rolls, sandwich wraps, Pillsbury Cresent rolls, Hot Pockets. etc.......
Compounding matters, you've got items like Lean Cuisine Glazed Chicken with rice, which really isn't diet food. It doesn't matter if lean cuisine is 310 calories per serving if you've been eating some form of bread, pasta or rice throughout the day. With all those junk carbs in your system, your body is going to treat the lean cuisine as excess, storing it as fat. And what about the "whole grain" aspect of breads and noodles? Marketing, pure and simple. Sure, wheat bread is a little better for you than white bread. But the thing is, you don't *need* bread at all. In fact, the average Joe needs far less of it in his diet.
So review your food intake, consider how many junk carbs you might be taking in that involve bread, pasta and rice. Consider revising your intake, replacing a morning bagel with some vegetables or fruit. Instead of a traditional sandwich for lunch, wrap your ham & cheese or whatever with a leaf of romaine lettuce. Since you didn't load up on bread, rice or noodle carbs during the day, then it's OK to have chicken and rice for dinner. Making smart choices and choosing tasty alternatives gives you the freedom to do that!
Breads, pastas and rice are delicious, but treat them like, well, a treat, not a staple.
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