The pasta, and carbohydrates in general, tends to be one of the reviled foods in many diets started this January after the Christmas excesses. However, experts recommend not eradicating it from the context of a healthy dietas long as it is consumed in a certain way.
In this sense, the professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Newcastle Emma Beckett clarifies in an article in The Conversation why pasta “isn’t just carbs” and therefore shouldn’t be eliminated, even if your goal for this year is to lose weight.
As Beckett explains, a cup of cooked pasta (around 145 grams) has about 38 grams of carbohydrates, 7.7 g of protein and 0.6 g of fat, “in addition to the water that is absorbed when cooking and many vitamins and minerals,” he points out.
Although carbohydrates are the majority within the composition of the pasta, the expert recommends “think in context” in which it is consumed.
For this reason, remember that both fats and carbohydrates and proteins are macronutrients that “break down in the body to produce energy.” In this sense, he continues, “the acceptable ranges distribution of macronutrients describe proportion or percentage of macronutrients that should provide this energy”, and that the experts establish “based on health outcomes and healthy eating patterns”.
Regarding these proportionsEmma Beckett describes that “we should get 45 to 65% of our energy from carbohydrates, 10 to 30% from protein, and 20 to 35% from fat.”
In practice, Beckett notes, this means that “it can be healthy eat between 1.2 and 6.5 times more carbohydrates in a day than protein, since each gram of protein has the same amount of energy as one gram of carbohydrates.
Going back to the particular case of pasta, whose proportion is 38 g of carbohydrates versus 7.7 g of protein, one would find “within acceptable range distribution of macronutrients”.
This means, according to this nutrition expert, that pasta “has enough protein to balance carbohydrates” thanks to the eggs and wheat present in it.
Beckett further notes that in the context of a healthy diet “it has been shown that people lose more weight when your diet includes pasta on a regular basis.
How to eat pasta correctly
For this reason, the expert recommends that, instead of leaving the spaghetti aside, portion sizes are reduced or if you choose to consume whole wheat pasta“which is higher in fiber, is beneficial for gut health, and can help you feel full longer.”
In regards to the pasta without glutenBeckett notes that it “has a little less protein than wheat pasta,” and while it’s the choice for people with gluten intolerance or celiac disease, “there are no major health benefits to switching to gluten-free pasta for most of us”.
Likewise, the nutritionist suggests that pasta can even help children or adults to eat more vegetables: “Sauce can be a great place to hide vegetables,” she says.
Another trick to better benefit from the properties of pasta that Beckett points out in his article is consume it once it has cooled or reheat it if they are leftovers from the day before, since some of the carbohydrates turn into resistant starch.
“This starch gets its name from being resistant to digestion, so it provides less energy and is better for blood sugar levels. Therefore, leftover pasta, even if reheated, has fewer calories than the night before,” he concludes.