Pasta: Friend or Foe in Obesity?

Depending on the nutrition dogma you read, pasta is either “full of toxic refined carbs” or “a defining element of healthy Mediterranean diets.” How can we make sense of this riot of conflicting dietary advice?

A new observational study published in Nutrition & Diabetes offers some insight.

Researchers examined data from two large observational studies and found “a negative association between pasta consumption and obesity in a large sample of a Mediterranean population.” In other words, people consuming pasta in a population following a Mediterranean diet were less likely to have obesity.

Of course these observations are not findings of cause and effect. The study has plenty of limitations, starting with its observational design and including its reliance on self-reported dietary data. But the consistency of this observation in two entirely separate cohorts is reassuring. It’s not just the pasta that counts. It’s everything that’s associated with it.

Consider also the experimental finding, published in Appetite, that found little advantage for whole grain pasta compared to refined wheat pasta in terms of satiety and glycemic index. Compared to bread, the blood sugar levels after refined wheat pasta actually looks pretty good.

Writing for the Glycemic Index Foundation, dietitian and nutritionist Nicole Senior tells us:

I’m not sure how this humble food [pasta] went from a much-loved traditional staple to eliciting fear and loathing for its carb content, but such is our whacky, affluent Western, diet-obsessed world.

Contrary to popular mythology, pasta is not especially fattening. However, attention to the sauce recipe and portion size will help reduce kilojoule (calorie) overload.

So perhaps pasta is neither friend nor foe. It’s just food.

Click here to read the study in Nutrition & Diabetes, here to read the study in Appetite, and here to read more from Nicole Senior.

Pasta Evolution, photograph © Luca Florio / flickr

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july 7, 2016