Pasta is one of the grains of the daily recommended myplate diet. For Italians and American families eating spaghetti is a traditional meal throughout the week. However eating whole grain spaghetti, is not as common as eating the bleached floured pasta. The white pasta has vitamins B but hardly any minerals and the fiber content is 2 grams.
Whole grain spaghetti or any style of whole grain pasta gives you more added nutrients such vitamin B and minerals of copper, selenium, magnesium, and fiber.
The majority of people don’t consume the amount of fiber needed daily which is 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men. Fiber is an important part of our diet because it keeps us regular, and helps your body to get rid of toxins.
The benefits to eating more whole grain food such as whole grain spaghetti with vegetables, as opposed to meat is the increase of health benefits to your body being more nourished with vegetables; than with meat because of all the vitamins in vegetables. You gain more energy with a plant based diet and its high in fiber.
In a plant based diet, your cholesterol will be lowered if you opt out meat 2-3 times a week. You will intake less calories which will help you to lose weight. Cutting back on your meat consumption also lowers your risk of heart disease.
The next time you plan to make spaghetti consider leaving out the traditional white floured pasta, meatballs, meat sauce and sausage for something meatless that will leave you feeling healthy, fuller and more energized like this meal below.
Recipes This meal is whole grain thin spaghetti with mushroom, butternut squash, sundried tomatoes, green beans, onion and garlic.
Recipe
• 1 box of whole grain thin spaghetti
• 1 small butternut squash
• 1 bunch of fresh green greens
• 10 mushrooms
• 1 large onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 Tbs. of olive oil
• ¼ cup of sundried tomatoes
• ¼ tsp. of red pepper flakes
• 1 ½ tsp. of salt
Steps
1. Peel and cut butternut squash into small dice pieces.
2. Steam green beans and butternut squash.
3. Cut onion into pieces and mince garlic cloves.
4. Rinse and cut mushrooms into slices.
5. In large skillet add 1 tbs. of olive oil and sauté garlic, onions, mushrooms, greens beans and butternut squash and sundried tomatoes. Add salt to taste and pepper flakes.
6. In a large pot bring water to a boil, break spaghetti in half and place in water.
7. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
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