Thread: Good news about pasta.

I generally could give a shit about health news but found this interesting.
Read a study on the body's calorie uptake from pasta.
Fresh cooked, it's quite high.
But if you leave it to cool the starches change form into a harder to digest carb. About 30% less uptake.
Then even better, if you reheat it the starches take a form more similar to fibre and the uptake goes down to 50%!
So, leftovers are where it;s at people.

Interesting, Necron. Does the research say anything about differences in release rates of energy from the three different forms of carbs that you mentioned?

Less calories = energy?

A Healthy Meal: Cooking And Cooling Pasta Changes Starch Quality To Cut Calories, Fat


Lots of google links to similar articles

Originally Posted by Neverna

Interesting, Necron. Does the research say anything about differences in release rates of energy from the three different forms of carbs that you mentioned?

Good question.

So, eat stale pasta? Yum. I feel the stale sauces would negate the benefit.

Originally Posted by sabang

So, eat stale pasta? Yum. I feel the stale sauces would negate the benefit.

Stale?
Sauces are like curry, always better reheated after a day in the fridge.
A tip for keeping uneaten pasta, once its done and drained give it a light splurge of olive oil and stir it up. Stops the pasta sticking together, jus a few drops is needed.

Thanks for the link, Necron. The article does not go into much detail about exactly what the changes are so it's not clear if the cooling and re-cooking makes a difference in energy release rates, or if it actually just kills some of the carbohydrates. Perhaps it's a glycaemic index type change. I'll see if I can find some more info on it.

But what if you could change pasta or potatoes into a food that, to the body, acts much more like fibre? Well, it seems you can. Cooking pasta and then cooling it down changes the structure of the pasta, turning it into something that is called "resistant starch".

It's called "resistant starch" because once pasta, potatoes or any starchy food is cooked and cooled it becomes resistant to the normal enzymes in our gut that break carbohydrates down and releases glucose that then causes the familiar blood sugar surge.

So, according to scientist Dr Denise Robertson, from the University of Surrey, if you cook and cool pasta down then your body will treat it much more like fibre, creating a smaller glucose peak and helping feed the good bacteria that reside down in your gut. You will also absorb fewer calories, making this a win-win situation.

One obvious problem is that many people don't really like cold pasta. So what would happen if you took the cold pasta and warmed it up?

When we asked scientists this question they said that it would probably go back to its previous, non-resistant form, but no-one had actually done the experiment. So we thought we should.

Dr Chris van Tulleken roped in some volunteers to do the tests. The volunteers had to undergo three days of testing in all, spread out over several weeks. On each occasion they had to eat their pasta on an empty stomach.

The volunteers were randomised to eating either hot, cold or reheated pasta on different days.

On one day they got to eat the pasta, freshly cooked, nice and hot with a plain but delicious sauce of tomatoes and garlic.

On another day they had to eat it cold, with the same sauce, but after it had been chilled overnight.

And on a third day they got to eat the pasta with sauce after it had been chilled and then reheated.

On each of the days they also had to give blood samples every 15 minutes for two hours, to see what happened to their blood glucose as the pasta was slowly digested.


o what did happen?

Well we were fairly confident the cold pasta would be more resistant than the stuff that had been freshly cooked and we were right.

Just as expected, eating cold pasta led to a smaller spike in blood glucose and insulin than eating freshly boiled pasta had.

Continue reading the main story
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Start Quote

Our leftovers could be healthier for us than the original meal”

Dr Chris van Tulleken
But then we found something that we really didn't expect - cooking, cooling and then reheating the pasta had an even more dramatic effect. Or, to be precise, an even smaller effect on blood glucose.

In fact, it reduced the rise in blood glucose by 50%.

This certainly suggests that reheating the pasta made it into an even more "resistant starch". It's an extraordinary result and one never measured before.

Denise is now going to continue her research - funded by Diabetes UK - looking at whether, even without other dietary modifications, adding resistant starch to the diet can improve some of the blood results associated with diabetes.

Chris was certainly blown away by this finding.

"We've made a brand new discovery on Trust Me I'm A Doctor", he says, "and it's something that could simply and easily improve health. We can convert a carb-loaded meal into a more healthy fibre-loaded one instead without changing a single ingredient, just the temperature. In other words our leftovers could be healthier for us than the original meal."

Bon appetit

BBC News - Is reheated pasta less fattening?

I've always liked cold pasta.

So if one is training for a marathon eat it fresh, if not eat leftovers!

Tonight I plan to experiment with a left over home made beefburger. All in the interests of science of course.

Originally Posted by Koojo

I think some people worry too much sometimes.

Hopefully, when they do, they're eating fresh and not processed...

Reminds me to chisel out those couple of Lasagne's from the bottom of the deep freeze. Whoopee.

So the total caloric intake does not change. Just how fast it can be digested. Still interesting, but not a shortcut to lose weight.

Always preferred cold lasagna. I knew it was healthy.

Originally Posted by Takeovers

So the total caloric intake does not change. Just how fast it can be digested. Still interesting, but not a shortcut to lose weight.

It does as the pasta become resistant to digestion like fibre.

Perhaps the cooling process changes simple carbohydrates into complex carbohydrates.

I don't know how this qualifies as good news.

Pasta= starch, starch = sugar.

It's as bland as wallpaper paste too

It might be good(ish) news for people with diabetes or people who want a sustained energy release rather than a quick energy rush.

Originally Posted by Necron99

So, leftovers are where it;s at people.

Bad news about beer. When leftover it tastes terrible the next morning.