It turns out eating pasta doesn’t actually increase your chances of gaining weight…
It’s official: eating pasta regularly does not lead to weight gain, according to a new study.
“Pasta is a staple carbohydrate across many cultures but has been implicated in overweight and obesity due to its position as a refined carbohydrate,” nutrition scientists Lisa Sanders and Joanne Slavin wrote in a study published on MDPI.
The pair analyzed 38 different published studies looking at pasta intake and body weight in both adults and children and found that “dietary patterns high in pasta were generally not associated with odds of overweight or obesity or were inversely associated.”
In other words, Sanders and Slavin found no link between how much pasta people consumed and their odds of being overweight.
In fact, one of the studies the pair looked into even suggested that “pasta can be included in a healthy diet and not contribute to weight gain or hinder weight loss”, the nutritionists wrote.
The researchers only dug into data regarding regular white pasta, rather than wholegrain or gluten free pasta and egg or rice noodles.
Pasta tends to get a bad rap due being a white carb, which are generally thought to be low in nutrients and fibre, and have a high glycaemic index (GI). But Sanders and Slavin’s research seems to demonstrate that pasta has been unfairly lumped together with ingredients like white bread, rice and potatoes.
“Clinical trials consistently demonstrate pasta to have a lower glycemic response compared to similar starchy foods, such as rice, potatoes, bread, and noodles,” they wrote.
Boiling pasta changes the structure of the starch to make it more easy to digest, while a cold pasta salad gives the pasta time to reorganize back into resistant starch, lowering its GI even if you overcooked it.
