This article looks at the effects of pasta preparation on blood sugar levels
What’s the deal?
Pasta is great exercise food. It can be eaten hot immediately after cooking, reheated the next day, or even eaten cold. But do these options provide the same amount of energy?
What did they do?
45 participants were invited to eat pasta in the name of science. The pasta was either hot (freshly cooked), cold (after overnight refrigeration), or reheated (microwaved). Their blood sugar (glucose) level was tested before eating and every 15 minutes afterwards for 2 hours. Pasta was served with tomato and basil sauce and eating took place across 3 visits, separated by at least 48 hours.
What happened?
Everyone’s blood glucose went up after eating pasta, peaking after 30 minutes and falling thereafter. Hot (freshly cooked) pasta led to the highest blood glucose on average and stayed higher for longer. In contrast, blood glucose fell the fastest with reheated pasta and was generally lower overall. Blood glucose after cold pasta was in between the two, but most similar to the response from reheated pasta.
What can you tell me about the people?
Participants were between 20-24 years old and had normal fasting glucose levels (not diabetic).
What else should I know?
So why does this happen – how can there be more, or less glucose in the same amount of pasta? Scientists believe it’s related to changes in the chemical structures within the pasta during heating and cooling. Heating and then cooling pasta leads to what is known as resistant starch. This resistant starch cannot be easily broken down by our bodies and so we digest less of the pasta, i.e. less glucose is released from the pasta.
What will I do differently?
This study is interesting in different ways for different groups of people. If you are wanting to get the most energy from your pasta, like me, then eat it hot and freshly cooked. If you have type 2 diabetes, you may want to consider eating it reheated or cold to prevent a high sugar spike.
Acknowledgements
This research was published in December 2019 by C Hodges and colleagues from the University of Brighton, UK.
This article highlights our personal take on their research, but there is so much more information available! Check it out here and see what you think!
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