How's cous-cous as alternative to rice/pasta/spuds?

ncmc

I am going to try and reduce my carb intake so I want to try and cut down on rice/pasta/spuds and bread. I know salad is the obvious answer, but I figure if I am having salad for lunch then I will get pretty sick of it if I have it for dinner too!

Wondering if cous-cous would be a good alternative for my evening meal?

Transform

Better than the alternatives but still not calorie free so just have it in an amount no bigger than the size of your fist.

Combine with olive oil, avocado, veggies (tomatoes, spring onion, pepper No sweet corn with it) and plenty protein like tuna or other fish, chicken, eggs etc just no bloody crappy ham!

Key is just watch your portions more than your carbs per say

ApeXaviour

Cous-cous is about the same as pasta, as in it's majoritively starch and nutritionally lacking. So like any high-density or simple carbohydrate, should be avoided when on a diet that restricts carbohydrate.

Instead try a nice big portion cauliflower, broccoli (smothered in grated cheddar), mange-tout, greenbeans, peas, sprouts, ochra, spinach, there're lots of veg out there. Onions bulk up a meal well I find too. Throw a few nuts in with your meal too, you can usually get them cheap in bulk in asian food markets.

EileenG

What he said.

Personally, I find stuff like cous-cous and pasta are incredibly boring. Seriously, would you eat it if if didn't come with a sauce? I'd rather eat polystyerene pellets.

ncmc

EileenG wrote: »

What he said.

Personally, I find stuff like cous-cous and pasta are incredibly boring. Seriously, would you eat it if if didn't come with a sauce? I'd rather eat polystyerene pellets.

LOL, prob less carbs in them too! I like the cous-cous that you can buy that is flavoured, you can get it in Sundried tomato flavour and it's lovely.

I guess it's just been bred in to me that a dinner isn't a dinner without a big steaming pile of carbs!

Transform

EileenG wrote: »

What he said.

Personally, I find stuff like cous-cous and pasta are incredibly boring. Seriously, would you eat it if if didn't come with a sauce? I'd rather eat polystyerene pellets.

No its not - thats just an unimaginative person looking at it.

Carbs are basically activity dependent - the more you do the more you can have.

olaola

I throw everything and anything into cous cous - spinach leaves, peppers, tomatoes, onions, avacados…. And toasted nuts go really well with cous cous. It's also a great vehicle for oils - as it soaks up the flavour.

Personally I don't use stock, I use lemon juice and fresh herbs to flavour it and to keep it light.

ApeXaviour

Transform wrote: »

Carbs are basically activity dependent - the more you do the more you can have.

Can have doesn't mean should have. Look over on the fitness board, you'll notice a lot of athletes restrict their starch (as well as sugar obviously) intake. It's been indicated in better recovery, performance, and general health.

Transform

How many athletes do you train and know that restrict carbs?

Very very few and not taking enough carbs when doing training for over and hour a day can be detrimental for performance.

If you are doing feck all exercise i.e. less than 4hours of hard training a week - restrict carbs to about 40% of total intake.

If your training for a marathon your going to eat like a horse just to get in enough food.

EileenG

Really, I had no idea we were dealing with a marathon runner or competitive athlete. Yes, I absolutely agree that those are people who can eat a lot of carbs. Most of us commute to work, sit at a desk and do a few workouts at week in the gym. Huge amounts of carbs are not the optimal diet.

Transform

EileenG wrote: »

Really, I had no idea we were dealing with a marathon runner or competitive athlete. Yes, I absolutely agree that those are people who can eat a lot of carbs. Most of us commute to work, sit at a desk and do a few workouts at week in the gym. Huge amounts of carbs are not the optimal diet.

Which is exactly what i said in my post.

rubadub

ApeXaviour wrote: »

Cous-cous is about the same as pasta.

Yep, the OP was looking for it to be compared to rice/pasta/spuds/bread and it is probably the closest thing to pasta there is.

ncmc- just look at nutritional info on packets in the supermarket, hold them side by side and compare. Dunno if you can get wholemeal cous-cous easily, but roma do a wholemeal pasta range at a reasonable price.