What is Pasta is Prologue

First came the studies saying red meat was good for you. Then came news that butter should be embraced over margarine. It’s okay to eat eggs again. Now comes word that, based on a recent study, pasta is not the carb-laden villain we once knew. To the contrary, it can be an essential part of your diet. Note to Olive Garden executives: It’s time to bring back the Never Ending Pasta Bowl®.

As reported in the Washington Post,

The Neuromed Institute of Pozzilli found that eating pasta in moderation is associated with a lower body-mass index, waist and hip circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio. The study recommended deriving 10 percent of your daily calories from pasta…. Neuromed researchers drew this conclusion after conducting two surveys totaling more than 23,000 subjects, one group in the southern Italian region of Molise and the other across Italy. Researchers collected information on the subjects’ body measurements and nutrition patterns. The researchers said it was the first study that looked at the role of pasta in controlling one’s weight on a traditional Mediterranean diet. “Our findings show a negative association of pasta consumption with general and central obesity in two methodologically and geographically different, large Mediterranean populations,” the researchers write. “Pasta as a product of cereals has been since ancient times consumed in the Mediterranean area and it has been considered as one of [Mediterranean diet’s] traditional components, placed at the basis of the pyramid. Our comparative analysis of data from two different Mediterranean populations supports that pasta intake is negatively associated with both indexes of obesity status and prevalence of overweight and obesity.”

Well, that settles that. Now for my heaping bowl of spaghetti bolognese at Buca di Beppo. Or maybe a casserole-dish of manicotti (or as my Jersey friends say, manigott). I’m sorry, did someone mention something about “moderation” and “controlled amounts”?

Those terms pop up in the article, though to be honest it’s all rather cryptic. For example, writes the Post‘s Rachel Premack, “the new research published this week in the journal Nutritional and Diabetes suggests eating pasta in controlled amounts is associated with a healthy lifestyle.” Later, Licia Iacoviello of the Laboratory of Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology says “Pasta should be considered as ‘good carbs,’ if consumed in moderation.”

Vague, right? In addition, Premack suggests substituting traditional flour for something mysterious called “whole-wheat.” It sounds terrible. In any event, go on and have those stuffed shells. It’s time to get healthy!

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