Brown verses White

I dithered this way and that over my wholewheat pasta and rice purchases.

Should I have saved money and gone down the Smartprice basics route or have I done the right thing for the health benefits.  I was still not sure this morning to be honest.

So a bit more research was required to try and set my mind at rest.

These two 500g packs of wholewheat spaghetti and pasta shapes from Asda cost me 45p each, so 90p for the two.  The equivalent packs of white pasta in the Smartprice range would have cost me 20p for the spaghetti and 29p for the shapes, a total of 49p.

I could have saved 41p.

Looking at the breakdowns on the packet labels for my extra 41p I am getting more protein, more calories, a couple of grams less carbohydrate and a smidge more fat for my extra money,  while still remaining in the healthy 'green traffic light' symbols.  

So perhaps my 41p was well invested, I should feel fuller for longer AND feel better for it.

The rice is a similar story.

My kilo bag of wholewheat rice cost £1.09, the same sized bag of Smartprice white rice would have been 45p ... this time less than half price ... saving me 64p.

This time for my extra money for every 100g of rice I have an extra gram of protein, an extra 24 calories and an extra .6 grams of fat.  Again all with green traffic light symbols on the packs.

  So is my additional £1.05 money well spent? 

 I guess only time will tell.  I do like both brown and white pasta, personally I think brown has more flavour and a more solid texture but white is quicker to cook and sometimes just what I fancy.  Brown rice takes longer to cook, but, and it's a big BUT, I usually struggle cooking the Smartprice white rice and it nearly always turns out claggy.  My usual purchase for white rice is Basmati which I love, this was the same price as the brown rice I ended up buying.

  Although I'm pretty sure that if I have to buy replacements during the Challenge I'm only going to be able to afford the cheap white versions anyway ... we'll see!!

😎