Acupuncture Chapel Hill, NC

We talk about nutrition in our office here at Acupractic Natural Healing Center because what you eat affects your health and wellbeing in many ways.  Back pain, shoulder pain, foot, and ankle inflammation can flare up with improper diet and nutrition. When you choose foods with higher fiber, better glycemic index, closer to nature- less processing, healthier fat, you are more likely to maintain a healthy weight and get the vitamins and minerals you need. To get through the hype of advertising, take a few minutes while shopping to choose your foods carefully. One of the things I recommend at my practice is label comparisons of various foods to gain insight into how the foods can best serve your nutrition needs. Some seemingly healthy foods may not be so nutritious when scrutinized in this way as processing affects foods and can either add or detract from the source. For that reason I looked into pasta made from beans- is it as good as the original beans? Or has it lost its mojo in processing? Importantly, is pasta made from beans better than pasta made from flour? How about egg noodles?

The ingredient list/nutrition content photos below of cooked garbanzos (chickpeas), chickpea flour and chickpea pasta demonstrate that, for a serving size of about 50 g, garbanzo beans, flour made from garbanzo beans, and garbanzo bean pasta all share similar nutrition contents which shouldn’t be surprising since the process of making pasta doesn’t remove anything. (I needed to see this for myself, however). Pictures of pasta made from durum wheat (regular pasta) are below the page for comps.

Here are the compared nutrients for 30 grams Dry garbanzo beans, garbanzo bean flour, garbanzo bean pasta followed by the nutrients in durham wheat pasta and egg noodle pasta where F=fat, CH20=carbohydrate, Fi-fiber, S=sugar, P=protein, Ca=calcium, I=iron, Po=potassium

Dry garbanzo beans:       F:  1.8g,  CH2O: 18.0g,   Fi: 5.4g,  S: 3g,   P: 6g,  Ca: 30mg, I: 1.9mg,  Po: 264mg

Garbanzo flour:                F: 1.0g,  CH2O: 18.0g,   Fi: 8.0g,  S: 1g,   P: 7g,  Ca: 23mg, I: 2.0mg,  Po: 348mg

Dry garbanzo pasta:        F: .53g,   CH2O: 19.8g,   Fi: 4.8g,  S:<1g,  P: 7g,  Ca: 21mg, I: 1.4mg,  Po: 397mg

Durham what pasta :      F: .54g,   CH2O :21.4g,   Fi: 1.1g,  S:1.1g,  P: 4.3,   Ca:8.0mg, I: 0.9mg,  Po:74.5mg

Egg noodles dry:              F: .80g,   CH2O:22.0g,    Fi: 1.1g,  S:1.1,    P:3.8g, Ca:0mg,   I:0.4mg,   Po:69.7mg

As the compared nutrient values show, pasta made from garbanzo beans has a similar nutrient value to garbanzo beans themselves with somewhat less fat and fiber. Interestingly, pasta made from garbanzo beans has about twice as much fat (unsaturated), four times the fiber, twice the protein, and significantly more minerals such as calcium, iron, and potassium as either durham wheat or egg noodles. Beans do not lose nutrients in processing to pasta and noodles made from beans is beneficial to the diet in ways that regular pasta is not.

If you have questions about nutrition, ask Dr. Oskardmay during your next chiropractic and acupuncture appointment, or email us today: schedule@acudocnc.com. We are here for you!