no problem with rice or corn but can't tolerate GF pastas?

[crunchy_mommy]

This is more of an intolerance than an allergy but it seemed the best place to post it...

I don't seem to tolerate GF pasta well... gives me stomach cramps, bloating, etc. However, I don't seem to have the same problem with just regular brown rice, or corn, or corn tortillas. I'm kind of confused because the only ingredients in my rice pasta are brown rice & water, same with the corn pasta -- it's just corn & water.

Obviously the solution is to avoid GF pasta (and I just ordered a spiral slicer so I can make veggie strands in place of pasta... pasta is my favorite food ever because I love making sauces and all!) But is that normal? I just find it weird when I can eat all the ingredients but not the finished product. Some other GF stuff (like muffins or pancakes) seem to mess with my blood sugar but not with my digestion. It's so hard to figure this all out.

[Ravenlunatic]

I totally feel for you.  I would guess that it is just the processing of the food that makes it harder to digest or something.  Or maybe you eat way more pasta than you would rice and so can't adequately digest it. 

That is what the deal is for me.  I have terrible trouble with a great deal of food (was gluten free for a long time and am now grain/starch free).  For me it is that I ingest way more (almond) flour than I would almonds and so I can't digest it well enough.  I have to have super small portions of anything even remotely processed and I don't eat regular processed stuff, I process my own....

Maybe thats it.

[Kindermama]

I'm the same exact way! One time, out of the blue, I vomited BR pasta and ate it again months later only to be in some serious stomach pain. That's when I made the connection! 

I found that sauteed kale is a great "sauce carrier"! I loooove marinara sauce so I had to find something! 
It's also great on eggplant slices that have been breaded and baked. Or zucchini, baked the same way. 

[mytwomonkies]

Could be cross contamination, what brand do you use? Spaghetti squash is great for pasta!

[crunchy_mommy]

I use a few different brands, TJ's, Tinkyada, some corn one in a green bag... are any known for cross-contamination?

I'm kind of thinking like the pp's said that it may be I'm just eating way more, and perhaps the way it's processed makes it harder for my body to digest. I did have a very small amount of rice noodles in a salad my friend made and the small amount didn't seem to bother me. I think they were white rice, not brown rice, though, not sure that would matter? (I don't normally eat white rice/pastas).

I am finding lots of pasta-substitutes at least, and the new spiral slicer is especially awesome! I don't think I could have cut out pastas completely when I was vegan but just last month I started eating animal products and it's much easier to make satisfying meals with little or no grains. I still need to lose a few pounds but all my pants fit again & I'm not hugely bloated.

[mytwomonkies]

You might be right, might just be that it's a lot of processed food. I have heard of some having problems with tinkyada and I'm pretty suspicious of all trader joe's stuff since so much of it is produced on shared equipment, but that's just me :p I think I know what corn pasta you're talking about but don't have any experience with that. Hope you get it figured out!

There really are so many pasta substitutes and they're so much healthier than the processed stuff. Garlic roasted cauliflower is another favorite of mine, makes a good base for pretty much anything!

[SweetSilver]

I think if you have mild troubles with foods you might not notice it with the whole foods as much as you will notice it with things like flour.  Whole grains have plenty of undigestible fiber and even the digestible stuff doesn't necessarily digest so your total load is less.  I know that coarse cornmeal under pizza or rustic bread doesn't trouble me at all at that amount, but finer cornmeal is bad and corn starch is a bear!

Can you eat plain rice in any amount?  Can you gorge on rice without effect?  Chewing very carefully?  (What about white rice?  It might be worth a try.)  If you can then it probably is something else like contamination.

[crunchy_mommy]

Hmm I'm not sure, I'm not a big rice fan really so i tend to only eat small amounts of it! I can't stand the taste of white rice & it negatively affects my blood sugar but I guess I could try it just to see. I am hoping to stick to a very low-grain diet anyway but I keep cheating. I had some white rice threads tonight (at a friend's) and now I look 5 months pregnant. I did eat more than I should have though. For some reason it's very hard for me not to gorge on pasta. I kind of think that's a sign I shouldn't be eating it, since a lot of the foods I react to are ones I particularly love...

Roasted cauliflower, kale, hmm these are not things I would have thought to put sauces on!

[Ravenlunatic]

I always eat pasta sauce and meatballs on only vegetable... started with spag squash but sometimes don't have time to prepare it right before a meal and so I just chop (long ways) any vegg I have in the house and sautee away with olive oil, onion, and garlic.  My favorites are spinach, kale, zucc, tomato, onion and garlic, peas, string beans... hmmm, what else can add?