Is pasta unhealthy?
Posted by kathryn in Grains
Pasta has developed a bad reputation. I know a lot of people who believe they shouldn’t be eating it. That as a “carb” pasta is unhealthy, fattening and a big no-no if you’re trying to lose weight.
All of which seems to me to be an unhealthy and untrue extreme.
Sure a big bowl of pasta, dripping with olive oil and covered in parmesan is not the best thing for your waistline. However while it is true that many pasta meals are high in kilojoules, it doesn’t have to be this way.
In my view, pasta is a cheap and delicious food that is a really useful base for easy meals.
I wouldn’t eat it every day, but we do have pasta at least once a week. In fact, in our house, every Friday night is pasta and a glass of wine night – it’s a lovely way to end the week.
Incorrectly pasta is often dismissed as a “simple” or high GI carbohydrate. However, in actual fact, even pasta made from white flour has a low GI. According to the GI group:
Pasta has a low GI because of the physical entrapment of ungelatinised starch granules in a sponge-like network of protein (gluten) molecules in the pasta dough. Pasta is unique in this regard. As a result, pastas of any shape and size have a fairly low GI (30 to 60).
The problem with pasta
For most people the problem with pasta is they simply eat too much of it. In most people’s cooking a pasta meal tends to include a lot of pasta, virtually no veg, a big whack of fat (from oil, butter and cheese) and only a small amount of meat, fish or vegetarian protein foods.
Meals tend to look like this or this – in other words, they’re dominated by the pasta.
While a big white bowl full of pasta might make a cool food photograph, it isn’t the healthiest ratio possible.
Five ways to make a healthier pasta meal
If you want to enjoy pasta more regularly here are some ideas on making it a healthier meal:
- Tweak the ratios on your plate: it helps to change your perspective on pasta and its role in the meal – to think about pasta as the accompaniment instead of the main focus of what you’re eating. If you think about pasta as being just one element in the whole meal, then you’ll be on track.
- Cook less pasta: rather than guess-timating, start measuring the amount of pasta you use and cook a bit less. For myself I cook about 80g of dried spaghetti or three small handfuls of any pasta shape. This is a lot less than most people.
- Vegetables: any healthy meal has to include vegies and pasta is no exception. Aim to have at least three of your daily five serves in your pasta dinner. There are lots of ways to add vegetables into the sauce, or cooked in with the pasta. Alternatively, have your meal with a big bowl of salad.
- Measure the oil you use: watch any celebrity chef on TV and you’ll see them pouring oodles of olive oil into a pan, while happily talking away to camera. While it’s common to see quarter and half cups of oil in recipes, this is quite a lot for every day cooking. I am in the habit of measuring out my oil and usually only use 1 – 2 tablespoons.
- Don’t go crazy with the cheese: there’s no problems with a few slithers of shaved parmesan, or a sprinkling of grated cheese, but it’s easy to over-load your meal which adds significant kilojoules and saturated fat. So get into the habit of using a bit less. Again it’s useful to measure out the cheese you use and work in tablespoons rather than cups. As a change from cheese, I regularly top my pasta with toasted pepitas or a pangrattato.
How do you make a healthier pasta meal?
07 September, 2011
Comments
I love to eat pasta as a side of tomato-gratin. Just thickly slice tomatoes, put them in a baking dish with some onion rings, some mozzarella. I also put in some “sauce” made from tomato paste, salt, water, honey, herbs and chili. Baking at 175°C for 35 to 40 minutes.
The pasta is essential for me, but it’s really just a side.
This is a great post Kathryn, full of practical, doable tips as ever. I agree completely – it’s not the pasta that’s unhealthy, it’s what we have with it and the large portions it’s so easy to have.
Pasta is one of the foods that we always teach people about in our weight management clinic portion sessions and my experience has tallied with yours that 80g dry weight is a good place to start experimenting from. And from a personal perspective I do find wholegrain pasta just that bit more filling.
In terms of adding vegetables, I love chunky tomato and roasted vegetable sauces and I’ve also found there are very few pasta recipes that can’t cope with the addition of a handful or two of roughly chopped baby spinach leaves right at the end.
It’s a mind trick of course but keeping the cheese on top of the dish where your mind can see it all seems to make a small portion feel more generous.
So true Kathryn, pasta isn’t unhealthy when you eat it in the ways you’ve suggested in this informative post. I don’t have pasta often, but when I do, I make it healthier in the same ways as you have suggested. I don’t add cheese to the sauce, but occasionally sprinkle a little on top, and I also use wholegrain and good quality wholegrain pastas like spelt. I sometimes vary it with quality gluten-free pastas that are made with a mix of chickpea and rice flour, or quinoa and rice flour. The variety helps to have a nutritious and yummy meal.
Fabulous post as always!
Wonderful post, Kathryn. You’ve dispelled myths & misconceptions and provided some tasty, healthful ways to enjoy pasta as well control portion size, which is key. I remember the days when pasta was considered the food of champions and runners would carbohydrate-load prior to running long distances. Pasta certainly has taken a bad rap in recent years.
As a dietitian, I’ve learned common objects and body parts (!) can be useful in teaching portion control. An adult fist is approximately equal to 1 cup or 2 servings of cooked pasta, cooked rice, fruit or vegetables. (According to our national [Canada’s] food guide, 1/2 cup of cooked grains equals 1 serving). My suggestion it to be two-fisted & on your dinner plate match a left fist-full of pasta with a right fist-full of vegetables.
Great suggestions from your previous commenters Lesh, Sophie and Ellen, too.
Yum! I love pasta but over the last few years have cut back from eating it about 4 times a week to once every week or two (mainly because I have a few wheat issues if I eat too much). I love veggie-heavy sauces with a bit of meat (mince or chicken are my favourites), and spag bol is definitely my go-to comfort food when I’ve had a grumpy day! Just the smell is enough to lift my mood :)
A quick and simple dish is to saute a chicken thigh fillet or 2, some onion, garlic, then throw in a few mushrooms, maybe zucchini, some kalamata olives and a couple of chopped tomatoes. Top with a bit of parmesan and cracked black pepper. SO GOOD!
I also love adding lentils to my mince or just substituting lentils for the mince. I blogged my Lentil-bol earlier in the year, and it’s also delish http://cooks-notebook.blogspot.com/2011/05/lentil-bol.html
Great article – think I’ll be making some pasta for dinner tomorrow.
Really enjoy your posts! Thanks for sharing this wonderful article!
Pasta is my favorite food so you can imagine how excited I am to be reading the different ways to eat pasta, the healthy way.
And thanks for making it clear that pasta actually is healthy because it contains the good carbs that allow your body to digest and absorb it slowly.
I also love pasta cooked with chunky tomatoes and spinach! Plus olive oil is my favorite cooking oil. Not to mention that it’s such a healthy oil that provides essential fatty acids that are good for the health and skin, too.
I stopped eating pasta too often – had pasta and veg spag bol so often that it bored me – so now I eat it less but enjoy it more with lots of different veg combinations – it is great in lasagna if you have lots of veg sauce between it – with shapes I often tend to add a tin of chickpeas and a sprinkle of cheese rather than lots of cheese.
My husband has gout-wheat seems to spark an attack, so we reduced pasta intake to once a week and use gluten free. Can you tell me what the other culprits might be-is dairy an issue?. He rarely drinks and until recently had about 4 meat meals a week. We are now going vegetarian for awhile(we have always eaten a lot of fruit and vegetables)
Thanks for taking the ‘evil’ out of pasta. I love my pasta meals but hate that there seems to be a bit of guilt loaded in with them. Your tips are so true – I often make wayyyy too much pasta to go with my meal and I vow not to anymore!
I always cook up something like tuscan kale to take up half the plate, pasta on the other side. They taste great together!
Ellen, your tomato gratin sounds wonderful, absolutely wonderful – thank you so much for sharing it.
Sophie – I really like your idea of keeping the cheese on top. You’re right, it is a mind trick, but a useful one. And so much about healthy eating and particularly weight management, is about mind-tricks. I also talk about pasta portions a lot in my weight loss groups and sometimes people do freak-out at the portions – which makes it extra important to be encouraging and positive!
Thanks everyone for your suggestions, they’re all quite delicious!
Julia – regarding your husband’s gout. There are a number of foods that can be a problem with gout, but without knowing anything about your husband’s history or diet it’s impossible for me to say what is causing the problem. Might I suggest he go and see a local dietician or nutritionist to investigate his diet further? They would be able to help him track down the problems and put together an eating plan that is both healthy and gout-minimising.
I haven’t heard of pangratato before, but it sounds really tasty with anchovies, zest and garlic!
Arwen, pangrattato is fantastic. It’s actually my most common pasta topping now. I make up a batch, whenever I have some stale bread, and it stores in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Utterly delicious.
I also make all different kinds, depending on what I have. I often use preserved lemons instead of anchovies and zest. A bit of dried chilli and tonnes of fresh herbs also works wonders.
Hi Kathryn
I couldn’t agree with you more about pasta! I enjoy it regularly and I’m certainly not overweight. Pasta is also a component of the traditional Mediterranean diet, which is one of the healthiest diets in the world.
I’ve actually been trying to tell people for years that pasta can be part of a healthy balanced diet, and I thought you might enjoy this article I wrote for Culinate a while back called “The Pasta Myth”:
www.culinate.com/articles/opinion/pasta_myth
Hope you enjoy it. :)
Thank you for this. I’ve eaten pasta all through my weight loss, and have never understood why people avoid it. It’s a great vehicle for veggies and a yummy tomato sauce. I often use whole wheat pasta, no chance in hell that I’ll overeat that. This is a much different dish than spaghetti with butter and cheese and garlic, which is what most people likely think of when they think of “pasta”, thus its bad rep. I also love pad-thai, pad-see-ew, yum yum yum.
Kathryn – OK, technically you are “correct” – it’s not the pasta that’s the problem – it’s the grain-based flour used to make it that’s the problem – oh wait, that’s the same thing!
PLEASE READ THE SCIENCE BEFORE YOU TELL PEOPLE EATING PASTA IS ACTUALLY GOOD FOR THEM!
Low Grain and Carbohydrate Diets Treat Hypoglycemia, Heart Disease, Diabetes Cancer and Nearly ALL Chronic Illness:
http://www.mercola.com/article/carbohydrates/scientific_evidence_low_grains.htm
Kathryn,
As much as many people would like to believe that it’s all about moderation in things we eat and do, that is not scientifically the case. In order to truly understand what pasta, grains, etc. do to your body, you must understand some basic endocrinology. Also, to understand the biochemistry behind it all is important as well. Grains are toxic (literally) and do harm to the body. I advise you to learn about the sciences involved before recommending such things.
A great book to help you would be Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis. I could also refer you to many websites and research studies that show the biochemistry and more!
SERIOUSLY??!! Pasta is not food. Food comes from the ground, a tree or an animal. Pasta is super processed and NOTHING about it is healthy. Nothing. “ungelatinised starch granules in a sponge-like network of protein (gluten) molecules in the pasta dough”……yum. I think I’ll stick with a big hunk of meat thank you.
PS- pasta does make you fat.
Obviously everything written on this blog is my opinion, but it is an opinion based on six years of nutrition study, seven years of clinical practice, together with constant ongoing reading and researching. As a practising nutritionist I have to keep up to date.
There is a current fad to believe that all grains are bad for you. Fingers are particularly pointed at foods like pasta, as they are made from flour, a more processed food. However, despite the popularity of these dietary fads, humans have been eating grain foods for thousands of years. Our consumption and cultivation of grains pre-dates the agricultural revolution by tens of thousands of years.
Here in Australia the rate of obesity is believed to have doubled in the last 20 years and it’s estimated that 61% of the population is obese, diabetes is said to be approaching an “epidemic” and heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women.
I take these problems seriously. However we have been eating grains, including pasta for a lot, lot longer than the last 20 years, even the last 100 years.
The causes of the growth in obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease are multifactorial and complex. To say that grains or even pasta are the cause of our health and obesity problems strikes me as being naive and simplistic, as well as misleading and unhelpful.
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