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My wife forwarded me this website www.paleopasta.com and I know that this is pushing the boundaries of Paleo. Since I grew up on pasta, I would like to know what you guys and gals think of this as maybe a once or twice a month meal? I have been paleo for 18 months and lost 40 lbs in the first two months and have maintained my weight since.

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I look at Paleo Pasta the way I look at vegan steaks. o_O Then I wonder why..... – NewEra May 31 2012 at 20:36
Everything looked good, at least for those of us who have to live with non-paleo, picky eaters. Except for the price, which is $14.38 per pound. – bachcole May 31 2012 at 21:09
@ NewEra : good point with the vegan faux-meat comparison – Sarah May 31 2012 at 21:27
@NewEra Or veggie burgers, vegetarian hot dogs, etc... LMFAO. Imitating things that they despise. Be innovative or just eat the real food you're apparently missing – Sam May 31 2012 at 23:46
I suffered through one Thanksgiving where my hosts proudly served smoked tofurkey with soy gravy ... – cerement May 31 2012 at 23:56
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15 Answers

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It's made it's rounds here before. The issues most people have are as follows...

  1. Ingredients include inulin, a known gut irritant. Also Xanathan gum and quinoa.
  2. It's not a whole food (my own major beef).
  3. It's a "Candy Cigarette".
  4. It's probably not a good representation of the real thing.

Once or twice a month? Sure. Once a week? Depending on goals, but that might be pushing it.

Best option I would suggest - try it and see how it makes you feel.

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do you think rice pasta would be a better idea? – Sloan May 31 2012 at 19:15
"Ingredients include inulin, a known gut irritant." What??? All I read is the benefit as a prebiotic. It seems like this statement needs a qualifier? Maybe "Ingredients include inulin, a known gut irritant in those who suffer from IBD." or something like that? – Jim B May 31 2012 at 19:20
I don't know if inulin is an irritant but I do know that a lot of people find it bloating, esp peeps with IBS like me. – Renee May 31 2012 at 19:56
Thanks. Even when I was eating SAD my gut was pretty iron clad and my wife finally decided to go paleo (3days in) so I needed some thing to entice her. She has been eating a half assed paleo diet since i started because I do most of the cooking but she destroys it with bbq sauce and my mortal enemy...ketchup – xtonedog May 31 2012 at 23:33
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@Matt - A whole food doesn't have an ingredients list. @Jim B - I sincerely apologize that opinions contrary to your own upset you so much. – Joshua Jun 1 2012 at 12:03
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I was a fervent fan of pasta, spaghetti, vermicelli, etc... when eating a WPD but two principles I definitely hold on to regarding this matter are 1) No frankenfoods and 2) No Paleo substitutes (that aren't Paleo anyway mostly). Pasta is a past food. It's as simple as that (but not easily for me to get to that point).

So I'd definitely not eat it and the best option in my opinion is, like Joshua stated, to try it and find out how you handle it, if you really must.

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If you want to use that as a "cheat" every now and then, fine. But don't fool yourself into thinking it's paleo in any way.

I like spaghetti squash as a pasta alternative, but I was never a pasta purist, so YMMV.

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Oh believe me, I wouldn't consider this a paleo food but I could think of a million other cheats that are way worse. Thanks for your response – xtonedog May 31 2012 at 23:35
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Holy cow that's expensive pasta. No way. If I am going to eat pasta for a treat I'll be buying organic rice noodles for about 1/3 of the cost. (This happens like once every month or two.)

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Amen. If I'm going to make phở, for e.g., I'm going to use real (rice) noodles, and not something like "paleo pasta." – greymouser May 31 2012 at 19:27
here here. Totally agree! – Craig Almaguer May 31 2012 at 21:43
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I use "riced" cauliflower. It is not a processed food. Liberally pour sauce over it

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My boyfriend likes this too! I just use a pastry blender to mash it up. He prefers this over spaghetti squash for "noodles." – pinkpants1 May 31 2012 at 23:53
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Interesting, and here I thought Paleo Pasta was Spaghetti Squash.

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Or zucchini or kelp or (my favorite) sliced noodle shaped cabbage. All actual foods. – Karen May 31 2012 at 20:41
Spaghetti squash made me forget that bland, pasty pasta ever existed. Mmmm. – January Mar 6 at 7:57
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I always feel pasta is fairly processed and fake with things added to it so I avoid it. I am intolerant of yeast anyway. As someone said above it is not a whole food. You cannot pick it off trees although in the 1960s on April Fool Day the British television did a plants which grow pasta spoof which lots of people fell for....

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Fairly processed and fake? Wheat, water, sometimes egg. There's no yeast in pasta either. – Matt Jun 1 2012 at 0:23
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at the end of the day, it's about controlling insulin. Spikes insulin equal weight gain. Dr. William Davis might have some grips with it. As Joshua says, once or twice a month, no prob. Rice is "less bad" but still messing with insulin. Control Insulin control weight.

Good luck!

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Try this instead!

http://www.health-bent.com/beef/paleo-butternut-squash-lasagna

Paleo Butternut Squash Lasanga. SO TASTY.

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About twice a week I make zucchini pasta with grass-fed meat and marinara sauce. Just buy one of these things and you'll be good to go!

http://www.amazon.com/World-Cuisine-A4982799-Tri-Blade-Vegetable/dp/B0007Y9WHQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338512586&sr=8-1

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I love my spiralizer! – Paleo Designer Mar 6 at 2:12
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I personally don't care for the idea of it. Paleo is about whole/unprocessed foods and this is definitely not that.

I worry that sticking "paleo" on the front of something will just lead to more of a fad notion then getting the point across that we are trying to return to a more natural way of eating. Not industrializing everything in a "paleo" way.

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http://tummyrumblr.com/post/23132159141/beef-stroganoff

I'll also chime in and say that I think zucchini cut on a mandoline is an excellent substitute!

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hmmm.... gluten free pasta..I probably will stay away from this ...as being a pasta lover i can see myself going overboard. However i am thinking of getting some for my teenager as an healthy alternative. Has anyone tried it .. ? Ive heard it has a nice texture simialr to the real thing. Better than just rice alone.

http://www.gogoquinoa.com/products/pasta/spaghetti-quinoa/

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Quinoa is not paleo. While it's not a grain, but a seed, it still has saponins which are leaky gut inducers. Not as nasty as wheat, but why eat them? – raydawg Mar 10 at 13:23
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I'm Paleo but eat rice. I prefer this gluten free pasta that only contains: Organic Brown Rice Flour. http://www.lundberg.com/products/pasta/Penne_Brown_Rice_Pasta.aspx

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Brown rice contains all the antinutrients of rice, while in white rice it's been stripped off. Not paleo. Sorry. – raydawg Mar 10 at 13:23
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If you really must, you can try white rice noodles: http://www.amazon.com/Thai-Kitchen-Stir-Noodles-14-Ounce/dp/B003VYDE00/ but they absorb water very easily and get very sticky, and are of course a huge bolus of carbs, just like wheat pasta.

These are great nutrient/calorie wise: http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Mine-Kelp-Noodles-16-Ounce/dp/B005LMCD8E though the texture is a bit tough.

I've had both, but the rice ones are closest to actual noodles - best thing IMHO, is spaghetti squash which adds its own flavor to pasta sauce, but harder to get.

IMHO, noodles in general are flavorless sauce delivery mechanism. It's strange that folks don't realize what they're craving isn't the pasta but rather the sauce, and that they can make it themselves (hopefully they don't have nightshade issues) and cook things like meats in them.

Most commercial pasta sauces have a lot of sugar added, so it's highly recommended you make your own. I tend to favor making raw sauces by putting a couple of chopped Roma tomatoes, a bit of EVOO, salt, pepper, basil, oregano in a blender and buzzing it until it looks like sauce. You could cook it also, obviously, and get more nutrients out of the tomatoes such as lycopene.

I haven't tried other stuff like zucchini, but that probably would be a good way to go.

Still, between faux pasta (or worse, real pasta) and a grassfed bison steak with some bacon, I will shun the pasta every time; I don't know anyone who wouldn't choose the same, were it not for the evil vegan/CW propaganda about "meatless mondays" and how supposedly red meat/cholesterol are as bad as nuclear weapons, global warming, and communism.

I wouldn't even have these noodle like things in our house, except as a mechanism to help bring the kids and wife away from outside junk food.

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