To think this is hysterical nutrition advice?

[LadyMoglet]

I eat chicken and fish most days but have a two days per week where I go meat free. On these days I often have 50g (uncooked) wholegrain pasta, tablespoon of homemade pesto and some veg such as broccoli, courgette, spinach, mushroom.
No added salt but a sprinkle of parmesan, pepper, garlic and herbs.

Sometimes I vary it with lentil soup.
It used to be cheese salad sandwiches but I wanted to up my fiber!

Unsolicited advice from colleague insists this is going to make me fat and metabolically ill.
I am not fat, and I don't have allergies or sensitivities, but a most definitely AM confused.
I am aware that it is none of his business, but I am wondering if this is a popular view of food now? It seems like the world has gone a bit bonkers with faddy diets.

Is this something else I haven't caught up with yet? Surely this is over the top?

Absolutely off his trolley. It’s amazing that because some people are highly allergic to wheat and others have various degrees of intolerance, a vague idea seems to have grown up that wheat is unwholesome or even toxic for everyone else too.

I often have 50g (uncooked) wholegrain pasta

Your coworker is an idiot but eating uncooked pasta is wild. Do you just sit there crunching on it? Or did you mean plain/no sauce instead of uncooked?

She's already said; she cooks the pasta and adds the pesto and vegetables to it.

I had to read it a few times before I clocked what this meant too, as I also imagined OP crunching on uncooked pasta! I think she just added the (uncooked) to specify the "uncooked weight" i.e. to distinguish from 50g of pasta after cooking (which would be less pasta)

There was a bloke in our office trying to convince everyone that using the microwave to heat food was pretty much the same as injecting yourself with cancer… or something. I stopped listening tbh 🙄

I wondered if she was referring to precooked but since this is MN I have learnt the hard way that if someone says something that sounds totally insane to me, like eating uncooked pasta, at least 65% of the time they are in fact doing the insane thing. 😂

There is ALWAYS going to be someone telling you that you are eating the wrong foods,or at the wrong time. I managed to lose 7 stone by intermittent fasting,not eating all day and only eating between 4 pm and 10 pm. A friend of mine was adamant that 'eating after 6 pm will stop you losing weight'. Suffice to say,I proved him wrong.

Didn't you ask him WTF he was on about? 😂

He can take a trip to Italy where what you eat is 100% normal, and see how healthy people are.

I did laugh at him, and he promptly shut up so there's that

I also meant uncooked in weight, so probably 100g after cooking? I do a LOT of veg and pesto tbh, and my breakfast and lunch are high in protein on pasta days (yogurt, cheese, egg).

It just seems pretty ordinary to me, to eat pasta twice a week. I don't eat more of it because i can get bored. I am mostly a huge fan of baked chicken and roast vegetables, gravy, or some other sauce. Or fish with potatoes and peas.

I don't like bread so my pasta is my main wheaty thing.

Love the tiktok bro comment. I use Reddit a fair bit and have noticed a similar obsession there. They all seem to despise processed foods but chug down the whey protein like there's no tomorrow.
I think people usually pick and choose what to believe in, we take on what appeals to us and reject what doesn't. To some extent...

Yes, the world has indeed gone a bit bonkers.

Orthorexia is a very socially acceptable eating disorder these days.

Food fads are the non-MAGA/ tin foil hat version of conspiracy theories.

People who wouldn't know what metabolism was if it jumped up and bit them in the bum toss the word around to impress others.

Your meals sound very nice and well rounded. So does the BBQ your colleague was having. Your other colleague sounds like a bit of a tit.

I think she is just trying to be precise to stop people saying “well if you use a whole jar of pesto that’s a lot of oil”, “well if you eat 250g pasta that’s a lot of calories”, “are you sure you aren’t adding a whole block of Parmesan?” I doubt she is carefully measuring out no more than a tablespoon of pesto.

The food sounds like nice comfort food - very similar to DS8’s favourite pasta (which is pasta with pesto, peas and a sliced boiled egg, with a bit of Parmesan and balsamic vinegar drizzled over. I have no idea how we ended up with this specific recipe, but he’s been eating it like that since he was 2 and never gets tired of it).

There is nothing wrong with eating carbs in moderation.