Pasta-doodle
It occurred to me that I don't have to be profound in these entries. Its my blog, I can blather on for pages and pages about the over-abundance of white socks if I wish. Of course that's not what I feel like going on about. No, today I want to rant about pasta. Namely the disparity between "traditional" pasta and healthy whole wheat pasta.

I am not a dietician. I have no idea the scientific ins and outs of refined flour vs good old whole wheat. I only know that the brown stuff is better for you. I try to eat whole grain breads. I actually prefer them to so-called white bread, truth be told. Pasta, however, I've been a bit cautious on.

I love my pasta. I could never be good student of the Atkins diet. It would require me to give up too much of my only one true food passion - pasta. You don't mess with pasta. You put different sauces on it, sure. You mix it with some fresh diced tomatoes. Right, that's fine. . . but you don't alter it. You don't make it out of tofu or something funky. You have plain old regular pasta.

But, I also want to be healthy and good and do the right thing. I want to try to eat better and to make wise choices for my child. So I broke down and bought whole-wheat pasta. Now I've yet to eat it. I did make it up last night so I could bring in some pasta salad for lunch today. I tired a single Rotini noodle. Although the taste is different, its nots so dramatically different that I feel as if I've betrayed my pasta-loving tongue.

So I get to thinking. Perhaps we'll make the leap. Perhaps I'll give up that regular stuff and just make the brown stuff. Perhaps I'll ditch that refined flour and stick with whole grains. Then I remember the aisle in the supermarket and how severely limiting that declaration seems all of a sudden.

The pasta in our supermarket takes up half of one side of a traditional aisle. There are multiple brands and every size and shape noodle you can imagine. Small pastina stars, long thin angel hair, twisty corkscrew rotini and bent elbows. I feel like a kid drooling in a candy store. Of all this selection, however, there is minimal options when it comes to whole wheat. Of that long span of loaded shelves, there are merely a fraction of the good stuff. I stared at merely a dozen or so different boxes - seperated by brand and shape.

The bread aisle is similar. Nearly an enter side of a full aisle dedicated to loaves of pre-cut, packaged bread. The vast majority of these loaves made of refined flour - white bread, buttermilk bread, potato bread, etc. The whole wheat, Whole grain, health-nut options pale in comparison.

Is it supply and demand or a conspiracy? Is there are secret group of diet-diva's desperate to make a buck off our fat butts pushing for less shelf space dedicated to 'good' food so we have less chance of finding our own way? Or is have so many of us fallen far off the beaten path that we've matted down a new one called the "not so hot for ya" trail.

I don't think regular old pasta or white bread will kill me any time soon. I also think its more chocolate and heaping servings that have contributed to my extra pounds. . .but I also don't think the disparity in good vs not-as-good quanities of food options have helped things. SO, all that rambling and thesis - for what?

Do you think its an oxymoron to have my whole-wheat pasta based pasta salad with a slice of french bread made from refined flour?