It’s three in the morning, you’re hungry as hell, and the only thing you have to eat right now are some rice noodles you found in the kitchen cupboard.
We’ve all been there, right? No? Well, I have.
The only thing that prevented me from eating the noodles right away was the strict paleo diet, so I went on the internet and read the latest research.
I’m kidding; of course, I ate those things like it was Chinese new year, but did I break our paleo streak by doing that?
Well, you’ll find out in yet another ‘can you eat’ article.
So take out your wild-caught salmons, my paleo lovers, and let’s see – can you eat rice noodles on paleo?
There isn’t that much to say about this one, but we’ll still try to make things as interesting and informative as possible.
Can You Eat Rice Noodles On Paleo?
Unless you chose this article to be your introduction to the paleo diet, you probably know the answer to this one.
You can’t eat rice noodles on paleo.
Completely unfair, right?
Not really; you’ve dodged a bullet on this one.
These things are so far from paleo, it’s almost a crime putting them in the same sentence.
Low-calorie, low fat, no glucose food has been shoved down our throats now for a good few decades.
But, we’re finally beginning to see the big picture when it comes to nutrition.
The things we should be eating need to be organic and as natural as possible, not processed to the point of surviving the next Big Bang.
This is where all the Paleo, keto, Mediterranean, planet Jupiter, and what not diets come into play.
They offer a relatively healthy alternative to all the junk we were led to believe was good for us.
But since this is theuskitchen.com and not livinJupitercuisine, we’re going to cover the Paleo one more extensively.
First, we’ll look at grains in general. Then we’ll concentrate on rice noodles and see why paleo experts dismiss these two entirely.
Fifty Shades Of Grain
Rice noodles are made from rice, and rice is a grain.
The whole philosophy behind the paleo diet is eating things our ancestors that lived ten thousand years ago ate.
Rice appeared around seven thousand years ago.
Wild rice exists, but it’s irrelevant in this context since it’s far from widely available.
But why are grains so bad for you in the first place?
Lectins
Lectins are proteins that are often called ‘anti-nutrients.’
They are considered harmful (especially when they’re raw) because they hinder your body’s ability to absorb minerals, vitamins, and nutrients.
They are believed to be the defense mechanism of plants.
Imagine you see a lion 100 feet away staring at you like you’re a juicy stake; chances are you’d get the hell out of there.
Plants don’t have that option; instead, they developed lectins that defend them from predators.
If you eat something three times and it makes you sick every time, you’ll stop eating that and call it poisonous.
The thing is when you expose lectins to water and heat; they are not nearly as harmful; in fact, they might not be dangerous at all.
The jury is still out on this one as there still isn’t enough research with concrete evidence out there.
But the paleo community is very vocal and clear on this topic; you can’t eat grain because it contains lectins.
Rice noodles are made of rice, which is a grain, etc., you get the point.
However, we have our own take on rice. Click here to read: Can you eat rice on paleo?
Things might not be so white and black as they appear.
Refined To Imperfection
Grains that people ate 200 or even 100 years ago were a lot more natural than what we have today.
As Earth’s population gets bigger, food companies have been tasked with producing more food.
They’ve succeeded in making the production process far more efficient.
There’s literally zero chance we run out of food tomorrow; everything happens according to plan since it’s just pure business.
But, by making things more efficient, they made the food a lot less nutritious.
Don’t get me wrong, you can still find some high-quality, healthy grains, but it’s getting harder by the minute.
As of now, a lot of food containing grains that are available is just packed with things(no better way to call them) that are almost poisonous to your body.
All of that being said, let’s see how rice noodles are a part of all of this.
Rice Noodles
Before we start preaching about paleo, we need to know a bit more about rice noodles.
First, the standard nutrition chart for 100g or Rice noodles:
| Nutrient | Amount | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|
| Total Fat | 0.2g | 0% |
| Saturated fat | 0g | 0% |
| Trans fat | 0 g | |
| Cholesterol | 0mg | 0% |
| Sodium | 19mg | 1% |
| Potassium | 4mg | 0% |
| Carbohydrates | 24.9g | 8% |
| Net carbs | 23g | |
| Sugar | 0 g | |
| Dietery Fiber | 1g | 4% |
| Vitamin A | 0μg | 0% |
| Calcium | 4mg | 0% |
| Thiamin | 0mg | 1% |
| Phosphorus | 20mg | 2% |
| Copper | 0mg | 2% |
| Vitamin C | 0mg | 0% |
| Iron | 0.1mg | 1% |
| Magnesium | 3mg | 1% |
| Zinc | 0.3mg | 2% |
| Protein | 1.8g |
Writing this chart made us cry; these things are nasty.
Empty Food
As a kid, you probably used to pick up things like dirt from the ground and give it a try; you never know, it could be good.
Well, that piece of dirt had more nutritional value than 100 grams of rice noodles.
These things are stripped from the most nutritious things regular rice contains.
Almost all Paleo food is brimming with healthy nutrients.
Vitamins and minerals, proteins and healthy fat, unprocessed carbs, and fiber are all staples of paleo cuisine.
Hate to be the one to shame, but rice noodles don’t have any of these things, at least not nearly enough.
They’ll Outlive You
Shelf life is a significant factor in the paleo diet.
If it can sit for a year and still taste the same, it probably ain’t Paleo.
We’re assuming you won’t be making your own rice noodles; even then, the nutritional value of those would be questionable.
No, you’ll probably go to a store and buy a pack of rice noodles.
The fact is, those rice noodles have had so many additives and sugars pumped into them they might as well start glowing in the dark.
The additives are not just there to make them last longer.
There are additives for color, for taste, and for who knows what.
A trait of a paleo food this is not.
Quality Over Quantity
Rice noodles are cheap to make, insanely cheap; they’re also cheap to buy.
Those additives we mentioned contribute to that since the people producing them don’t have to worry about their food going bad.
The paleo diet is, let’s be honest, a little more on the expensive side.
That’s because nutrient-dense food is a lot harder to obtain. It’s also a lot more prone to going bad.
Looking at rice noodles and let’s say salmon, side by side, the same amount of calories from both will provide you with vastly different health outcomes.
Skyrocketing The Glycemic Index
Glycemic index(GI) is the way we measure how much a particular food item will raise your blood sugar level.
The gist of it is, if it has a high glycemic index, it’s probably making you fat.
Hate to be the one to beat a dead horse, but spiked blood sugar is what makes your body store extra fat and unwanted weight.
High glycemic index foods spike your blood, make you crave more junk food, and have you crying in front of the mirror every few days.
Rice noodles are packed with those artificial sweeteners and flavors. Even without them, its GI is around 65, similar to popcorn.
The Paleo Alternative
This diet has gained in popularity pretty fast over the last few years.
People are losing weight, putting on muscle, and just feeling better in general when following the paleo diet.
So it’s not odd to find out that paleo noodles exist.
Now, to our knowledge, you still can’t buy these in a store, you have to make them yourself.
I’d suggest you try this new thing called Google; it might have the right recipe for you.
For those of you thinking ”What about egg noodles’, you might wanna read our article can you eat egg noodles on paleo?
Can You Eat Rice Noodles On Paleo – Conclusion
Apologies for not being very concise, but we take our job very seriously when it comes to food.
As expected, you can’t eat rice noodles on the paleo diet.
We’ll give the benefit of the doubt to foods that are considered healthy but not exactly Paleo.
However, rice noodles are not one of those foods.
When it comes to nutrition, they lose on all fronts. All they have is a bunch of carbohydrates and empty calories.
Highly processed, unless you’re making them yourself, these things are full of additives that are beyond unhealthy.
In addition to that, they’re just one of those foods that make you crave more empty carbs, and we all know where that leads.
If you are really craving some noodles, we told you about the paleo alternative, but be warned; it’ll take some work.
So, our firm recommendation is to throw these out and stay away from them as much as possible.