If you are a healthy weight and eat pasta...

[luminousloops]

I hear a lot of bad press concerning pasta, and am in this category.
I am lucky in that I haven't experienced any weight changes so far in my life (50) or health problems that might affect it. But I have always eaten pasta several times per week, including decent bread for toast and other white horrors.
That said, my daily food intake is fairly healthy over all.

I would like to know if pasta is still in a state of disgrace , since most of the internet gives it a big red flag. I know about the calories in it, but they don't seem like a terrible amount per portion.

It was something of a staple when I was growing up, part of a decent balanced diet, although not every day. Chucking some fresh tomato and pesto on it was a favourite, quick student meal for me. I don't recall anyone complaining about it being calorific.

Personally I believe in 'everything in moderation', generally, although food does seem to affect a lot of us in different ways. I don't know a great deal about insulin but appreciate that this concerns some.

So is it still popular in your house? Or do you find it problematic?

I’m half Italian and have eaten pasta most days for as long as I can remember as have my entire family and everyone I’ve ever met in Italy. Never shall a piece of wholeweat pasta pass my lips.

The trick is to eat it as part of an overall balanced meal. Not too big a portion, with a homemade sauce featuring mostly vegetables and olive oil and salad/fruit.

Extra virgin olive oil has been proven to lower the insulin spike associated with eating refined carbs.

I've always been a healthy BMI and eat loads of pasta. It's something the kids will reliably eat so we eat pasta-based meals usually 2-3 times a week tbh. I think I eat pretty large portions of them too because I also love it! But eat otherwise in moderation I guess.

We have pasta once a week but only wholemeal, which if cooked properly you get used to eventually. If going out for a meal will allow white pasta as a rare treat.

I ate it very regularly until I got to about 45, then had to stop. If I eat some I am ravenously hungry about an hour later, it doesn't seem good for my blood sugar. I think in general though it's good, and it's pretty evident if you have issues with it that will make you gain weight (for other than the obvious reason for creamy sauces etc).

@Flomingho yes I genuinely don't notice much different with the wholemeal to be fair, desperately trying to get our fibre intake up and was an easy switch to make. Rice is more noticeable but getting used to that also.

This is where I’m going wrong with losing weight, I can eat a pack of filled Rana gnocchi to myself easily, oops!

Big pasta and carb eater here but also a healthy weight. I do exercise a lot though and try and eat everything in moderation. However I am finding as I get older (approaching 50) my weight is harder to maintain and I am considering whether I should look more at a high protein diet and less carbs - for the amount of exercise I do I should be far more toned than I am so I am reading more and more about how high protein might help with that !

I think Italians tend to hold it together then suddenly balloon in midlife.

I love pasta so I am not predisposed to diss it but I have heard that foods made from refined or heavily processed foods such as sugar, white flour and trans fats are particularly bad as they cause inflammation in the body, including in the arteries (beneath the cholesterol layer). I suspect pasta made in a more rustic way ( ie from less heavily refined flour) was ( or is) probably better .

I tend to use around just under a cup, or 100g of spaghetti.

I can eat at least 4 times that amount, a packet of Rana pasta is one serving in my mind. I am fat and am avoiding it for the time being, until my appetite is more in line with yours.

Yes, normal weight, and yes to pasta, bread (wholemeal please) potatoes, rice, and noodles - all in moderation. Pasta almost begs to be covered with a delicious sauce, and that's where extra veg come in as they do so well with the pasta and a bit of cheesey umaminess on top.

I eat pasta 3-4 times per week and my BMI is around 21.5.

For me, quantity of food and portion control has always been the most important factor in keeping my weight down.

I've heard this too, but what I can't get my head around is how many cultures have eaten these things for centuries and thrive, japan, india, etc. Most of the problems that I have heard of seem to centre around the invasion of processed and fast foods, or perhaps how working trends affect lifestyle and sleep.

I don't know really, but if refined carbs such as sushi rice and pasta, plus the often despised potato were so bad, why are the people who have consumed them for centuries still fit, healthy and thriving?

I always feel that there is something we are missing. But a lot of anti carbers would tell you that pasta and rice are the same as chugging on a bag of tate and lyle - not so!

Pasta isn't worse than any other processed grain for weight gain but it doesn't mean it's healthy. Italians eat pasta frequently but they generally don't eat massive portions of pasta, although they do use it effectively as a carrier for veg, oily fish, good quality olive oil, nuts, mushrooms, small amounts of meat and fresh and dried herbs.

Even healthier to eat a Mediterranean diet, which is all of that good stuff but without the pasta.

If you are just eating big portions of pasta then there is very little nutritional value in it. Useful in this way if you're able to run a marathon and need to carb-load!

I think anyone who eats vast amounts of pasta, instead of using it as a side or addition, is going to run in to issues. If I ate an extra clutch of spaghetti I would have stomach ache.

It is of nutritional value though, not sure how you came to that?
It contains potassium, protein, iron, and magnesium, to name a few.
If you make it 80% of your plate then it wouldn't be surprising that the meal is off balance. It is a tasty and useful addition, not a full plate.

No one has survived off white potatoes as a large part of their diet for hundreds of years and been part of a healthy community. The Japanese, like the Italians with pasta, use rice as a carrier for very high quality ingredients.

The problem is when we take those ingredients and use the unhealthy ingredient and don't retain the healthy bit for the most part. So our pasta is generally overcooked, worse quality, less fresh ingredients and then smothered with cheese. The pasta makes up the biggest part of the dish - which isn't healthy.

So those foods can serve a purpose but the most part people in the UK don't eat them in a healthy way. Which is a shame.

A good study to read is The Blue Zones - which has documented the healthiest cultures around the world for decades. Sadly it sounds like those diets are dying out.

Not a problem for me, neither is rice, potato, etc. My favorite pasta is chicken strips, sauteed with garlic butter, sun dried tomatoes, and mushrooms. I use this as a heavy sauce with fettuchini (and French green beans as a side). I also love angel hair.

I think I know what I'm gonna have for dinner.

Yes, true - as you say it has its place if you eat it with the right stuff.

You could eat a handful of soil and it would contain nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and magnesium. Just because it has things in that can be healthy they are usually small amounts or not early digestible because of the way the food has been processed.

We're an Italian family and eat pasta almost every day (hence the name). None of us are overweight. Enjoy the pasta!

I eat pasta at least three times a week with loads of veg, bread and cheese. Never think about calories. My BMI is 19.

@luminousloops well done you.

As I understand it potato is fine so long as you don’t slather it in cheese, cream and butter- and even then it isn’t the inflammatory issue, it’s just calories (which you are actually allowed! ) Similarly white rice is not considered heavily processed, although it has had the outer layer of bran removed.

As for the “ history” aspect, I suspect pasta a hundred years ago was a rather less processed affair. We would probably think the pasta tasted quite different, especially texturally. As well as the supermarket offerings being quite heavily processed, wheat itself today is quite a different grain ( has been heavily modified to allow closer crops, disease resistance etc) and I have been told that spelt is actually much closer to what our ancestors would have known as wheat. My grandmother said even when she was young the bread was a long way from the white fluffy stuff of much of today’s bread.

All of this makes sense to the extent that modification would explain why our bodies aren’t cut out for it and why certain health problems have increased ( as would upfs). It makes more intuitive sense to me than claims that we shouldn’t eat carbs, or fat etc. Modified foods and upfs are not a “food group” whereas carbs, fats etc are.

I love it! Just make sure you get protein too

Reheat previously cooked pasta. It does something to its chemical whatsit and makes it actually good for you. 🥳 🥳🥳 I know!! There’s a Michael Moseley (❤️) on it.

Here’s the link ❤️