Is Pasta Bad for Digestive Health? Here Are The Answers…

Ever eaten a whole bowl of pasta, become incredibly bloated, then suffered awful abdominal cramps afterwards?

If you suffer with IBS, chances are that you’ve definitely experienced some form of pasta hangover. But cutting out pasta is hard, especially if it’s your main carb which you use to fill up with.

The best tasting pastas are the white flour, processed types, which offer low nutritional benefits and limited fibre. On the flip side, whole wheat pasta is full of fibre, have greater nutritional value and, as a complex carbohydrate, takes longer to break down and gives your digestive system much longer to process each forkful.

Whole wheat pasta is even recommended on the IBS Low FODMAP list of good foods to eat (http://patient.info/health/irritable-bowel-syndrome-diet-sheet). NB: This diet sheet only mentions ‘pasta’, but should really state the whole-wheat variety only.

So when looking for a pasta, go for whole wheat, but if you really don’t want to dabble with durum wheat flour, egg, or semolina at all (if you think they may be your trigger foods), there are plenty of pasta substitutes available.

If you’ve not been paying attention, Courgetti is now a BIG thing – big because health enthusiasts get to eat pasta without any of the bloat. Purely spiralised courgette, you get all the texture of spaghetti, with none of the drawbacks. My favourite ready-made courgetti (because I don’t own a spiraliser) is BOL foods Italian Tomato Courgetti, made with brocolli, beans, sun-dried tomatoes and of course courgettes.

If you really want pasta but so don’t want the bloaty part, try these awesome gluten free pastas from Explore Asian. They’re completely bean-based with no additives, meaning you can finally eat pasta but still feel clean and nourished afterwards.My favourite is the Edamame Fettucini, which cooks in minutes and tastes amazing with tons of peas, shoots and beans.

Still not sure about which way to go when craving carbs? Check out these 8 Ways To Prevent Bloating & Have More Energy and easily beat the bloat, everyday!