Details

Created on Thursday, 14 July 2016 17:01

People who blame pasta for weight gain have missed the message about the Mediterranean diet, according to Italian researchers. The team from the IRCCS Neuromed Institute in Italy crunched the numbers from earlier studies involving more than 20,000 Italians and discovered that pasta intake was associated both with lower obesity rates and healthier waist-to-hip ratios. 

"We have seen that consumption of pasta, contrary to what many think, is not associated with an increase in body weight," researcher George Pounis says in a press release. The team's research was published this week in the Nature journal Nutrition & Diabetes.

The researchers say their findings show that people trying to lose weight are wrong to completely banish pasta from their diets, reports UPI, which notes that pasta sometimes gets the blame for weight gain when it's used as a "vehicle for overly salty, sugary, fatty sauces."

A nutrition professor at the University of Reading says that the results appear solid, with pasta intake in this case demonstrating adherence to the Mediterranean diet. "These results clearly show that it is wrong to demonize carbohydrates as the data clearly shows that consumption of a carbohydrate-rich food such as pasta does not have an adverse effect on body weight," he says.

Dr. Cinque: This doesn't surprise me in the least. And two other positive things about pasta are that it's usually is eaten with tomato sauce, which is healthy because of its high lycopene content, that is more available than in fresh tomatoes, and the simple fact that pasta mixes very well with vegetables, such as zucchini, spinach, peppers, etc., and eating more vegetables is absolutely good.

What I do is use half whole wheat and half regular pasta. That way, I get the benefit of some whole grain, yet, it still tastes like pasta, as we know it. Using all whole wheat makes for a much stronger and different taste that some may like and some may not. But, going 50/50 is something that everyone can do- painlessly. 

I appreciate seeing articles like this that fight the demonization of carbohydrates. It's perfectly natural and normal to eat some carbohydrates. I don't say you have to eat pasta. Certainly, you can live without it. But, in that case, you should eat other carbohydrates. Avoiding them completely is ridiculous. But, I feel that way just as strongly about fats. Avoiding fats completely is ridiculous. It's perfectly natural and normal to eat some fats. And, would you believe that until a few years ago, it was taught that we can't taste fats, that our experience in eating them is all about "texture" and not taste? Fortunately, a few years ago it was discovered and announced that there are fat-detecting taste buds that are abundant and very sensitive.

Eschewing all carbohydrates or eschewing all fats is an extreme thing to do. Either one may result in some weight loss, and that's because in either case, you are throwing out a major class of food, and it is almost certain that you are going to reduce your caloric consumption.  And frankly, it's a shock to your system. What I do is eat healthy carbs and healthy fats, and I round it out with a lot of fresh produce. And doing that, I stay thin. I weigh the same at 65 that I did at 35. I am not the least bit interested in eating a low-fat diet or a low-carb diet. My goal is to eat a healthy diet which includes both carbs and fat, with moderate caloric consumption, and a lot of vigorous exercise. Both carb-avoidance and fat-avoidance are extremely extreme. So, don't do either one.