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Barilla Plus Pasta | Healthy Food of the Day

Barilla Plus Pasta is higher in protein, Omega-3s and fiber than regular pasta. The question is: How does this healthier version of Barilla pasta hold up in the taste department? 

Nearly everyone loves a good plate of pasta. And provided you don’t smother it with Fettuccine Alfredo sauce or heap on the Italian sausage, pasta can actually be a tasty and filling addition to a healthy diet … in moderation.

The issue with most traditional pastas made with semolina flour is that they are relatively low in fiber and protein, and aren’t made with whole grains.

While a plate of spaghetti can make a pretty solid post-workout meal (your body uses the carbohydrates more efficiently after weight or resistance training), many a spare tire was built on top of too many bowls of penne. And the fact that most people overestimate what a serving of pasta really is (sometimes eating as much as three servings in a single setting), the extra calories can start to add up quickly.

One option is to switch to one of the 100% whole wheat versions of pasta out there, for example Hodgson Mills Whole Wheat pasta. However, some people find the flavor of whole wheat pastas to be a bit strong. The texture sometimes also suffers because of the presence of wheat bran.

Barilla Plus Pasta To The Rescue

Enter Barilla Plus Pasta – a multigrain pasta that is not only higher in protein than your average semolina pasta, but also higher in fiber and Omega-3 fatty acids, a class of healthy fats that has been associated with lowered risk of heart disease.

The first thing to understand about Barilla Plus Pasta is that while Barilla labels it “multi-grain” you shouldn’t confuse it with “whole-grain.” Barilla Plus Pasta is still made with semolina and durum flour — the basis of all traditional pastas — and these flours have been refined to remove the bran and germ. So it’s not 100% whole grain.

What Barilla has doneis enrich their Plus Pastas with the addition of a grain and legume flour blend made from lentils, chickpeas, spelt, barley, flaxseed, oat fiber, oats and egg whites.

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What Are MUFAs? | Ask the Fitness Nerd

What’s a MUFA? The Fitness Nerd explains what this funny acronym means and why MUFAs are suddenly the rage among dieters.

Dear Fitness Nerd:

What are MUFAs? I keep hearing people talk about them, but I still haven’t quite figured out what they are. I know they are a type of fat, but I thought fats were unhealthy and should be avoided. Are they a supplement of some type like CLA? - Kayla R, (West Hollywood, CA)

MUFAs are an acronym for a “monounsaturated fatty acids” — a class of healthy fats found in foods like nuts and seeds, avocados, olives and certain vegetable oils. MUFAs are not typically taken as a supplement (as Conjugated linoleic acid or CLA often is), since they are plentiful in foods. 

MUFAs have gotten a lot of attention recently for three reasons:

1. MUFAs may help you lose weight.

There is some evidence that people who regularly consume MUFAs have lower body fat levels and are more successful at dropping body fat and weight than people who are on low-fat, carbohydrate rich diets.

This research flies in the face of  the conventional-wisdom that drove the low-fat craze of the 80s and 90s, which advised people to reduce their fat consumption as much as possible in order to lose weight, lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of stroke, high-blood pressure and heart disease. The latest research actually suggests that diets which are higher in healthy fats like MUFAs may be more effective at weight-control than low-fat diets.

2. MUFAs may reduce the risk of disease.

A growing body of research shows that MUFAs may not only help people lose fat, but that they also have protective properties that may lower the risk of developing certain diseases, including Type II Diabetes, heart disease, stroke and possibly certain types of cancers. MUFAs are also part of The Portfolio Diet, which is an approach to eating that combines MUFAs with other cholesterol-lowering foods like soy, plant sterols and soluble fiber from things like oatmeal and may reduce blood cholesterol-levels as effectively as prescription statin drugs.

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Fish Oil | Benefits and Side Effects from Answer Fitness

Hooked on The Idea of Taking Fish Oil Supplements? Before You Start, Learn About the Benefits and Potential Side Effects.

Fish oil is on a roll.

It’s difficult to open up a health or fitness magazine, browse the Internet or turn on the TV without seeing yet another piece on this “wonder” supplement. The health claims made in the media and online are often as amazing as the idea that we can distill down the oil of hundreds of fish into a single capsule: Reduce heart disease! Prevent cancer! Stave off depression! Stop arthritis! Improve your mood!

Not since Linus Pauling published his work on the benefits of Vitamin C (which has come under increased scrutiny by scientists in the past few decades), has there been so much buzz around a single supplement.

So before we dig into some of the possible benefits (and the potential side effects) of fish oil, let’s take a look at how we got here in the first place.

A Brief History of Fish Oil

The whole fish oil story started with a simple observation: People who had diets high in certain types of fatty, cold-water fish appeared to have lower rates of heart disease than other populations who ate less fish. The traditional Japanese diet, for example, contains large amounts of fish, as do certain Norwegian and arctic populations (like the Inuit.)

Scientists were intrigued enough with this correlation that they started to conduct studies to see if whether including more cold-water fish in the diets of people who don’t normally eat fish, could produce a similar benefit. Their results, while not conclusive, did find a strong correlation between the consumption of certain fats contained in fish, and decreased risk for certain form of heart disease. 

So what’s so great about fish?

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