Latest Fact Sheet

Season 4, Ep 4 - Rice, Pasta and Noodles

-Pasta is paste of wheat, flour and water associated with Italy.Noodles are basically pasta from Asia and are usually made with wheat, but also rice.Rice is simply the seed of a plant.Nutritionally, these starchy staples are classified as cereals.

-Every year, we put away enough rice and pasta to fill 23 Olympic pools, and slurp up enough noodles to wrap around the equator at least thirty times!

-Carbs alone don’t make people fat.Our bodies need carbohydrates to run essential organs like the brain and liver.Our bodies can process them at any time of day.The Ministry of Health recommends we load a quarter of our dinner plates with carbs.So in sensible portions, plain rice, pasta and noodles are an important part of a balanced meal.

-Many Instant meals contain additives, but we couldn’t find any to be concerned about.We alsosent ten packets of Chinese noodles toHill Laboratories, a specialist laboratory and tested forover 200 different chemicals.None contained any harmful residues.

-Theproblems start when we turn these traditional staples into highly processed convenience foods.

-Look at the nutrition panel when selecting Instant Noodles as many contain high levels of fat.Most are deep fried and can have ten times more fat than plain noodles.The Ministry of Health classes deep fried foods as “occasional foods”.

-Most noodles that are deep fried, are cooked in Palm Oil.Palm Oil is one of the “bad” fats as it’s a saturated fat.

- Baked Instant Noodles are now available, which are a healthier choice.

-Most Instant Noodles are also very high in salt. Salt contributes to high blood pressure which can be a killer.We’re often unaware of how much we’re consuming because 75% of the sodium we eat is hidden in processed food.

-To stay healthy, the National Heart Foundation recommends we limit sodium from all processed food to 1725mg a day.However, many popular Instant Noodles contain at least that, in just one serving.

-To cook a healthier meal, you can throw away the flavor sachet, or drain the liquid after it’s cooked to reduce your salt intake.

- There are over 40,000 varieties of rice in the world.All are either the harder long grain kind or the stickier short to medium grain rice.We’ve eaten these traditional varieties for at least 4000 years.

- Brown rice is a much more nutritious food than white.It has B vitamins not found in white rice and twice as much fibre.It also has more minerals like potassium which can help to offset the bad effects of sodium.

-Whitening rice is a purely mechanical process.The rice is passed through a series of roller and shakers that mechanically remove the husk.

-Brown rice can easily go rancid and should be stored in the freezer.

-New Zealand hasapproved one kind genetically engineered rice. LLRice62 was developed by the multinational giant Bayer to be resistant to one of its weedkillers.

-In 2008, the Food Safety Authority found rice noodles that were contaminated with another kind of genetically engineered rice, BT63.However,the risk is thought to be minimal to human health, although there are some concerns with people possibly developing allergies.

-Brown pasta is healthier than white pasta.It’s has 2.5 times more fibre than standard white pasta, but white pasta can also make a healthy meal.

- Couscous is actually just pasta.It’s made by rubbing flour and water together, just like pasta!.

Read more about Rice Pasta and Noodles via these links.