Courgetti, zoodles, boodles. These are words that were never even heard of a few years ago, but are now regular terms in the food world. If you still don’t know what they mean, keep reading. Turning vegetables into noodles has become a bit of a trend and for many good reasons. Even the supermarkets are selling pre-packaged spiralized vegetables now in the UK. So why is spiralizing vegetables taking over the world and why are we seeing more and more spiralized meals? Here are the benefits of spiralizing.
1. Low-carb made easy
Carbs have turned into a bit of an enemy over the last couple of years, in some cases rightly so. There are bad carbs and good carbs and we need the good carbs in our diet. Pasta, heavily processed breads, biscuits and other starchy foods should be avoided in a healthy diet or at least kept to a minimum. But that creates a bit of a problem, as most of the food around us is made of processed flour and sugar.
With time and motivation you can learn how to rely less on those foods and enjoy the abundance of wholesome meals made with good carbohydrates like vegetables, legumes like beans and lentils and grains like quinoa and rice. Imagine having vegetables as a main ingredient of your meals, without even realising it? With spiralized vegetables, every meal is a source of vitamins and many other nutrients that keep your metabolism active and boost natural calorie burn, even when not exercising. You should still enjoy foods like potatoes and rice for example, which are not as bad as many people blame them to be. Reducing the processed carbohydrates, without going to extremes and including more real food, inevitably results in a natural weight loss and a spiralizer can truly help solve the problem of excluding bad carbohydrates from your diet.
2. Endless healthy meal options, no calorie counting
One of the benefits of spiralizing is that it provides you with the ability to create an even bigger variety of meals that don’t contain any of the bad carbs, regardless of your diet preferences. Many people fail to maintain a healthy diet when they try, because they start starving, reducing drastically their calorie intake and eventually give up as this type of diet can’t be sustained for very long. The key to a permanent diet change that focuses on natural, less-processed foods is to get creative in the kitchen and start preparing your own meals. If you are finding it difficult or you are a bit bored with all the healthy meals you are already preparing, you might find that a spiralizer opens up a whole new world of delicious and wholesome options, especially for those that are on a gluten-free, raw or paleo diet. With real, satisfying meals like this, you don’t need to count calories!
3. Your favourite pasta, every day
Do you have a favourite pasta or curry sauce that you could eat every day if you could? Pasta is a favourite meal for many people, but too much of anything is not good, especially if it contains wheat. Spiralized vegetables don’t just look like spaghetti, but in some cases are even tastier than spaghetti and when combined with your favourite sauces, they turn into a delicious gluten and wheat-free, nutritious low-carb meal. With spiralized vegetables you can create an incredible variety of salads, “pasta” meals, curries, stir-fries and vegetable noodle soups. Everyone is always sceptical at first, but even the most sceptical people can’t deny that these meals still taste delicious when made with spiralized vegetables.
4. More veggies in your kid’s diet
Are you struggling to get your kids to eat more veggies? Well spiralizing mums often share how much this gadget has helped them secretly introduce more vegetables into their kid’s diet. The key is to get them involved in the spiralizing process as it’s quite a fun thing to watch how a courgette turns into a big bowl of “spaghetti”.
5. Create a balance
Still not sure if you want to give up your pasta? Well you don’t have to, you can still enjoy the classic Italian creations when you want, but you can create a more balanced diet where you eat vegetables more often than pasta. You can even mix vegetable noodles with regular spaghetti in one meal, so the processed carbohydrates in the meal are reduced and replaced with more nutritious noodles. You don’t need to worry about your “five a day”. With a spiralizer, you are so ahead of the game that you get all your five a day in one meal, several times a day. It sounds like a cliche, but turning to more vegetables and relying less on wheat-based foods can have an incredibly rejuvenating effect on your body.
I am very passionate about spiralizing vegetables as it’s a really easy step towards healthy eating. I have been able to surprise some of the most sceptic people around me, just as soon as they try some of the delicious meals. This gadget can truly revolutionise your diet with very little efforts. So if you are looking to change your diet and start eating healthier, without following strict diets, start spiralizing and enjoy delicious “pasta” meals daily!