Is Bulgar Wheat The Perfect Carb Substitute?

When someone first comes to me one of the first areas I will look at nutritionally is the quantity and quality of their carbohydrate intake. Eat too many carbohydrates and you make your life trying to lose weight very difficult. Read a previous blog article of mine on carbs here to find out why. But also eating the wrong types of carbohydrates (even in low quantities) can make weight loss very difficult.

In my experience most people find it very difficult to cut them out totally from certain meals. Most people are so used to having rice, pasta or bread on the side of a meal that it is ingrained as a habit. So just trying to eliminate that habit is likely to prove unsuccessful and unmaintainable in the long term. To be successful you need to make the change as close to what you were doing before as possible. So basically you notice little or no difference.

That’s where the bulgar wheat comes in. It can be simply cooked plain and put on the side of a dish just in the same way rice of noodles would be. Or you can follow a recipe and add things to it to make a dish. And I actually think it takes better.

What Are The Most Common Carbs People Eat?

I am going to stick to savoury carbohydrates for this article (the sugary ones can be saved for another time!) The ‘big 4’ as I call them are bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. Obviously brown is better in all of these but that certainly doesn’t mean eating them is going to help you lose weight. Quite the opposite, because the levels of carbohydrates and calories are so high that it makes it really difficult for most people to use up all that energy and not end up storing it as fat.

Calories – in 200g of cooked rice (which is not a large portion) you get 242 calories. And 262 cals for the same quantity of pasta. In 200 grams of cooked bulgar wheat you get just 166 cals.
More than that for the same serving size rice would provide 56 grams of carbs, pasta 50g, and bulgar wheat just 37g.

What Health Benefits Does Bulgar Wheat Have?

Firstly it is an unrefined and low GI carb so will not play havoc with your blood sugar levels. One of the nutritional benefits that make it stand out is its fibre content. To keep to the quantity above 200 grams of bulgar wheat would provide 9 grams of fibre. For the same quantity white rice would provide 0.8 grams and brown rice 3.6 grams. And brown rice is generally considered a high fibre food which goes to show how high bulgar wheat is. A high fibre diet is good for your digestion but will also keep you feeling fuller for longer. Or put another way you don’t have to eat as much of it as other foods to be full.

Bulgar wheat is also high in iron, magnesium and manganese. It also contains good quantities of vitamin B6 and niacin. And 200g contains 6 grams of protein to top it off!

Conclusion – Is Bulgar Wheat The Perfect Carb Substitute?

You are saving yourself calories and carbohydrates by switching to bulgar wheat. You are also adding in more fibre as well as other vitamins and minerals. And it really will make no difference to your dish. Whether it’s rice, pasta, bulgar wheat or whatever there really isn’t much flavour to it on its own. So try it on the side of a stir fry for example and see what you think!