One of the popular dieting methods involves creating a blacklist of foods. Giving up carbs or packaged foods is common, which can mean cutting out staples like pasta.
But do we really need to ban pasta to improve our diet?
This is what we call a reductionist approach to nutrition, in which we prescribe food based on only one of its main ingredients. Pasta is not only carbohydrates.
One cup (about 145 grams or 5.1 ounces) of cooked pasta contains about 38 grams of carbs, 7.7 grams of protein, and 0.6 grams of fat. In addition, it has all the water that cooking absorbs and many vitamins and minerals.
You probably know that there are guidelines for how much energy (kilojoules or calories) we should consume per day. These recommendations are based on body size, gender, and physical activity.
But what you may not realize is that there are also guidelines for the characteristics of macronutrients or foods that provide you with that energy.
Fats, carbohydrates and proteins are macronutrients. Macronutrients are broken down in the body to produce energy for our body.
Acceptable macronutrient distribution ranges describe the ratio or percentage of macronutrients that should provide that energy. These ranges are set by experts based on health indicators and healthy eating patterns.
Ratios are also designed to make sure we get enough vitamins and minerals that come with energy from the foods we normally eat. We should get 45-65% of energy from carbohydrates, 10-30% from proteins and 20-35% from fats.
The macronutrient ratio means that eating 1.2 to 6.5 times more carbohydrates than protein can be healthy, as long as each gram of protein contains the same amount of energy as a gram of carbohydrates. The ratio of carbs to protein in pasta is 38g to 7.7g, which is about five to one (5:1) within the acceptable macronutrient distribution.
And pasta actually contains enough protein to balance the carbs. And it’s not just because of the eggs in the pasta. Wheat is another source of protein, accounting for about 20% of the protein consumed in the world.
And if you’re worried about your calorie levels and weight gain, it’s not that easy either.
When it comes to healthy eating, it has been incredibly proven that people lose more weight if they regularly include pasta in their diet. A systematic review of 10 different studies found that pasta was better at balancing blood sugar levels after a meal than bread or potatoes.
Instead of giving up pasta, consider reducing portion sizes or switching to whole-grain pasta, which contains more fiber, which is good for gut health and can help you feel full for longer.
And gluten-free pasta contains slightly less protein than wheat pasta. So, while it’s healthier for people with gluten intolerance, there’s no greater health benefit for most of us from switching to gluten-free pasta.
Pasta is usually not eaten alone. So, while some have warned about the risk of high blood sugar when eating “naked carbs” (meaning just carbs without other foods), pasta is not dangerous.
When pasta is the mainstay of a meal, it can help people eat more vegetables in smooth or thick vegetable sauces. And for kids (or picky adults), pasta sauce can be a great hiding place for pureed or shredded vegetables.
Avoiding eating only pasta is also important for protein stores. Plant foods are usually not a complete protein, which means we need to eat combinations of them to get all the different types of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) that we need to survive.
But pasta, although we often focus on carbohydrates and energy, has good nutritional value. And, like most foods, they contain not only macronutrients, but also micronutrients.
One cup of cooked pasta contains about a quarter of the recommended daily allowance for vitamins B1 and B9, half the recommended allowance for selenium, and 10% of the iron requirement.
When pasta is cooked and cooled, some of the carbohydrates are converted into resistant starch. This starch gets its name from the fact that it is resistant to digestion, so it provides less energy and has a better effect on blood sugar levels.
So your leftover pasta, even if you reheat it, has fewer calories than the night before.
There is a lot of talk about cutting down on carbs for weight loss, but remember that carbs come in different forms and in different foods. Some, like pasta, offer other benefits as well. Others, such as cakes and pastries, add very little.
And when it comes to limiting your intake of refined carbs, think first about the sweets eaten on their own before cutting out the staple carbs that are often served with veggies—maybe the healthiest staple food group!
The report was prepared by Emma Beckett, Senior Lecturer (Food Science and Human Nutrition), School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Newcastle University.
Source: Science Alert
