Putting the Food
Guide Pyramid on Your Table--Pasta and Rice
Putting the Food Guide
Pyramid on Your Table encourages older adults to improve their food
behaviors.
The older we become, the more
careful we should be when choosing our food. We should depend upon food for good
nutrition. Food is much more than just a collection of nutrients. Follow the
Food Guide Pyramid for daily food choices and healthy eating practices.
Pasta Pleasures Quick and
Easy
-
Pasta is a wheat
product shaped in several ways.
-
Eat plenty of pasta to
get six or more daily grain servings.
-
Choose a tomato sauce
instead of high-fat cream sauces if you are watching fat and calories.
-
Add garlic or herbs for
more flavor.
"Pasta" is the
name for noodles, spaghetti, and macaroni products. Starting with a flour
mixture, the dough is formed into dozens of different shapes and sizes. Pasta
can be dried, fresh, or frozen. You can change one pasta for another if you
use equal amounts by weight.
Pasta is mostly
"complex carbohydrates"--this means starch. It fits as part of the
six to eleven servings from the grain group that you should eat each day. One
serving is a half cup of cooked pasta. Pasta's bland flavor teams well with a
variety of sauces or toppings. From hot soups to spaghetti and meatballs to
cold pasta salads, the choices are endless. Pasta can help stretch the food
dollar by making meat or other protein foods go farther.
Whole Wheat Pasta
You can add extra fiber and
a new flavor and texture too. Follow the directions on the package for best
results. But be prepared for a different feel to the pasta when eating
whole-wheat styles.
Cooking Pastas
Pasta can be cooked in a
microwave oven but pour a little oil on top to reduce foaming. Stove-top
cooking is about as fast as microwave cooking.
Macaroni and spaghetti:
One half of a pound of elbow macaroni or spaghetti equals about two cups of
dry pasta. When cooked, one cup of these dry pastas will become about two cups
of cooked pasta.
Noodles: One cup of
noodles will equal one cup of cooked noodles.
One-step Pasta: Most
pasta recipes tell you to cook and drain the pasta before adding the other
items. If you would like to save time, look for recipes where the pasta cooks
along with the other items.
Rice, an Old and New Standby
-
Rice is a thrifty,
nutritious starch food.
-
The bland flavor of
rice combines well with many other foods.
Rice is a great choice for
some of your daily six (6) to eleven (11) servings from the Grain Group. A
serving is only one half of a cup of cooked rice, for about 100 calories. If
you eat a cup of rice, that's two servings. Rice provides iron, starch, and
the B vitamins. Rice contains only a trace of fat, no cholesterol, and no
sodium (salt). Rice is also a source of fiber. Brown rice has 3 grams of fiber
per half cup; long-grain white rice and "instant" rice have about 1
gram.
Kinds of Rice
Brown rice: Have you
tried brown rice? It's like whole wheat full of all the good nutrients of a
whole grain. Try one of the quick-cooking brown rices. They take only 10 to 15
minutes to cook. Brown rice, with only the outside hull removed, tastes nutty
and is chewy. The oil in the germ can spoil (turn rancid), so use brown rice
stored on the shelf within six months or keep it chilled.
Milled white rice:
Sometimes called "polished" rice, milled white rice has the hull and
the outer bran layers and part of the germ removed. Three forms of white rice
are long, medium, or short. The shorter the kernel, the more it sticks
together when it's cooked. Long-grain white rice does not stick together. It
is ideal for soups, pasta dishes, or side dishes. Short-grain white rice can
be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to a year.
Instant Rice: This
is white rice that has been precooked and then dried. It is not as full of
nutrients as regular white rice.
Parboiled rice: This
is long-grain rice cooked under pressure before it is milled in order to keep
most of the nutrients.
Wild rice: Wild rice
is not a true rice. It is the grain of a tall grass. It is dark brown, has a
nutty flavor, and costs a lot of money.
Preparation Tips
Do not wash rice before
cooking or rinse it after cooking. This washes away nutrients sprayed onto it.
The rule of thumb for cooking is double the amount of water to the amount of
rice. Bring the water and rice to a boil in a covered pan and reduce the heat.
Do not stir during cooking. This makes it gummy and mushy.
Cooked rice can be stored
in the refrigerator after cooking for up to four days.
The Grains, where it all
begins. This is the foundation of the Food Guide Pyramid. There are five other
groups in the Pyramid.
Follow the Food Guide
Pyramid for daily food choices and healthy eating practices.
Reference
Adapted from Healthy
Eating for Life Program (HELP), Kansas State University, 1996.
Ohio State University
Extension
Adapted by: Alma M. Saddam,
PhD, RD. Nutrition Specialist
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