Pasta fights back in a low-carb world

BY JUDITH WEINRAUB

Washington Post

Poor pasta. With low-carb diets stalking the land, a distrust of all carbohydrates  especially bread, potatoes, rice and pasta  has taken hold.

Now, pasta is fighting back.

And nutritionally it has every right to, according to a consensus of scientists at a conference held in Rome two weeks ago. Organized by the Boston food think tank the Oldways Preservation Trust and funded by both Italian and U.S. pasta manufacturers as well as the Parmigiano-Reggiano Consortium, the conference attracted scientists, physicians, chefs and other pasta experts from North America, Europe and Australia.

The conference's declaration was simple: Pasta is digested more slowly than those other starches. Its glycemic index value (more about that later) is significantly less, so it shouldn't be grouped with other starchy carbohydrates dieters fear.

With the shadow of the Atkins Diet present, participants often felt obliged to refer to that extremely low-carbo-hydrate approach as a point of comparison.

"Atkins has traditionally treated all carbohydrates alike," said David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children's Hospital Boston. "But there are more healthy carbohydrates and less healthy carbohydrates."

One after another, scientists and doctors acknowledged that the currently fashionable low-carb diets can result in quick weight loss, but a significant amount of that loss is water and, therefore, presents a short-term solution.

Moreover, they stressed that the long-term safety of extreme low-carb eating has not been determined, that the diets tend to be high in saturated fat and deprive the body of important nutrients found in fruits, vegetables, beans, peas, lentils, seeds, nuts and cereal grains  such as the ones used to make pasta.

Not platters full of pasta but pasta eaten in appropriate portion sizes.

And it's even better, they said, if the pasta is eaten with some of its traditional accompaniments, such as olive oil, tomatoes and other vegetables, moderate amounts of protein, beans, legumes and nuts.

SCIENTISTS APPROVE

The conference's focus on pasta is in line with the eating patterns of the Mediterranean Diet, which Oldways espouses. That diet is not a restrictive plan but rather a way of eating characterized by the consumption of olive oil; fruits and vegetables; legumes, nuts and seeds; grains, especially whole grains; little meat; moderate amounts of dairy and fish; a daily glass of wine with the meal; and daily exercise.

When I was asked to moderate some panels at the conference, I pondered its premise.

My own food choices are in line with a balanced diet that eliminates no food group. And I have no doubt that weight loss really is a result of eating less and exercising more. But it had never occurred to me I could justify pasta as anything other than an indulgence.

Besides, it's been hard to shake off the seductive impact of the low-carb way of eating. The diets are easy to understand, they promise quick results and they're marketed as science: Eliminate as many carbs as possible, its proponents say, your body will metabolize more efficiently, and you'll lose weight.

Could it be that pasta was really a healthful food choice, that it breaks down and enters the bloodstream differently from other starchy carbo-hydrates and can therefore be included regularly in a sensible diet?

Absolutely, said the 34 scientists worldwide who have al-ready signed the consensus report from the Rome conference, including several who are at the forefront of work with the glycemic index and the glycemic load  concepts that are at the heart of extremely low-carbo-hydrate diets.

The glycemic index ranks foods containing carbohydrates on a scale from 0 to 100 according to their effect on blood sugar levels per gram of carbohydrate. Foods that are digested rapidly and release glucose into the bloodstream quickly are known as high-GI foods. Foods that are digested more slowly and release glucose more slowly, are known as low-GI foods.

"And pasta, with its dense compact structure, is a low-glycemic-index food," said David Jenkins, a professor of nutrition at the University of Toronto and co-chairman of the conference. "And it's even lower if it's eaten with beans, chickpeas and other low-glycemic-index vegetables."

Pasta is not the only starch with a low-GI value. Though they're rarely craved as much as pasta, other traditional foods like barley, legumes, whole-grain breads and steel-cut oats are in that category as well.

In modern times, more and more starchy carbohydrates are highly refined and hit the bloodstream quickly, which is not desirable, according to Jennie Brand Miller, a human nutrition professor at the University of Sydney in Australia and one of the authors of the recently revised "The New Glucose Revolution: The Authoritative Guide to the Glycemic Index" (Marlow & Co., $15.95) and several other books on the subject.

A diet heavy in such refined carbohydates can be predictive of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and possibly certain cancers, said Brand Miller.

SMALL LOADS

Several scientists at the conference also work with a calculation called the glycemic load, a figure that takes into account both the number of carbohydrates per serving of a food and its ranking on the glycemic index. It's a useful tool because it factors in how much food is actually eaten. (The glycemic index is a measure of the type or quality of the carbohydrate. The glycemic load is the product of the quality and the quantity.)

"A low-glycemic-load diet is the perfect compromise be-tween a low-fat diet on the one hand and Atkins on the other," said Ludwig. "You can eat abundantly from nature  fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and legumes  with moderate amounts of low-glycemic grain products, such as pasta."

Pasta meals  unless they are larded with butter, enormous meatballs or large quantities of cheese  have a low glycemic load.

"The glycemic load of a rice meal is roughly twice that of the glycemic load of a pasta meal," said Brand Miller, also pointing out that portion sizes are important, too.

"A pasta meal is very healthy if it uses vegetable or tomato sauce and/or accompaniments like olive oil, fish and lean meat and small amounts of cheese. It is healthy because the fats are good (unsaturated) and the carbs are good (low GI), and you are getting lots of micronutrients from the accompaniments. You are getting a balance of carbs, fats and proteins," she said.

In the end, the conference consensus was about eating healthfully and how pasta  in contrast to its starchy relatives like most bread, rice and potatoes  can be part of that.