Now Pasta Is Good for Your Diet?

Researchers link this Italian staple with lower BMI

Pasta may have gotten a bad rap. New research suggests pasta — specifically noodles in this study — might actually help you lose weight.

Moderate pasta consumption seems linked to lower chances of general and abdominal obesity, researchers found after analyzing data on thousands of Italians.

“Our data show that enjoying pasta according to individuals’ needs contributes to a healthy body mass index, lower waist circumference and better waist-hip ratio,” said George Pounis, first author of the study.

Previous research has touted the heart-healthy benefits of the Mediterranean diet, which is a way of eating rather than a specific meal plan. It emphasizes fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, peas and olive oil plus fish and poultry.
However, little was known about how pasta — also a staple in the Mediterranean region — affected health, the researchers behind the new study said. This finding fills that gap, they believe.

The results were published online July 4 in the journal Nutrition and Diabetes.

“We have seen that consumption of pasta, contrary to what many think, is not associated with an increase in body weight, rather the opposite,” Pounis added in a journal news release.

Many people have shunned spaghetti, noodles and other types of pasta in recent years because of concerns they were fattening. The new study could potentially cause Americans and others to revise their views.

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