Spaghetti bolognese is one of the staples of the UK household serving as a filling dinner that the whole family enjoy. We believe you shouldn’t have to go to cooking school and become an expert Mediterranean chef to start cooking healthy and should be able to keep a lot of the same meals you enjoy, such as this one. One of the easiest and stress free ways for sustainable changes in the way you eat is to keep the same meals but swap some ingredients for healthier alternatives ie spaghetti for courgette/zucchini! And if you are thinking ‘hold on, isn’t spaghetti healthy anyway’, please read on.

Spaghetti and courgette are both carbs – we are not making this a carb-free meal as your body needs carbs. However, there is a huge difference between natural forms of carbohydrate (vegetables) and refined carbohydrate (spaghetti).

Refined carbohydrates are one of the key things responsible for the rise in lifestyle caused disease, having been shown to be associated with:

• an increased waist circumference
• increased blood pressure
• increased LDL cholesterol
• increased triglycerides
• insulin resistance

A few ways of making your spaghetti bolognese something you still love but can also help you to lose weight, feel better and regulate your blood sugars better are:

1. Use courgette instead of spaghetti – you can buy this ready-made in the supermarkets now, or it is often more cost-effective to make yourself with a spiralizer or a cheese slicer/peeler by making long thin strips from the courgette, then chop into spaghetti sized strands. Fry it in a pan briefly to keep its consistency – do not boil it as it will be a soggy mess!

2. Add more vegetables – one way to get this dish even healthier is to add in more vegetables. Some of our favourites include: mushrooms, peppers, aubergine, cabbage and spinach. You’ll get a ton of health benefits by adding these things in as well as really bulking out the meal so you’ll often have leftovers for a healthy lunch the next day!

3. DITCH THE DOLMIO – as with most pre-made sauces they are full of sugar and salt, so always read the label! Instead of ready made sauce use a passata sauce which contains guess what – tomatoes only, and add a little salt and pepper.

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You will feel different after eating this meal! You won’t have a huge heavy carb comma! I actually find courgette gives me lot’s of energy after a meal like this! But if you are still hungry, just use more of your bolognese.

We hope you find this tip useful, but please contact us or leave a comment if you have any questions about how to use simple changes like this to improve your health.

Dr Jamie and Dr Judith