Pasta Companies Pushing Low Glycemic Diet Instead of Low-Carb

"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."

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; moderate amounts of dairy and fish; little meat; a daily glass of wine with meals; and daily exercise. It's an approach to food -- and, for that matter, to life -- that's hard to fault.

"Pasta, with its dense compact structure, is a low-glycemic-index food," said Jenkins, a co-chairman of the conference. "And it's even lower if it's eaten with beans, chick peas and other low-glycemic-index vegetables."

I'm surprised the article doesn't discouss low-carb and heart-healthy pastas.

Pasta is not the only starch with a low-GI value. Though they're rarely craved as much as pasta, other traditional foods, such as barley, legumes, whole-grain breads and steel-cut oats are in that category as well. However, the contemporary diet is full of refined starches with a high-GI value -- rice, breads, breakfast cereals, crackers and chips, cookies and other sweets, and many of them are manufactured with added sugars.

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" 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.

"A pasta meal is very healthy if it uses vegetable or tomato sauce and/or accompaniments such as 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."

Pushcart-Style Spaghetti

(4 to 6 servings)

Fresh basil, garlic and olive oil do amazing things to jarred tomatoes. This pasta dish has a fresh, clean tomato taste. It is named for the mule-driven carts that carried produce from the countryside to Rome and comes in many variations.

From "Pasta Classica" by Julia della Croce (Used from $1.95).

28-ounce can peeled Italian plum tomatoes in puree or seeded and chopped, with their juices

1 cup firmly packed fresh basil leaves, finely chopped (about 2 ounces)

3 large or 5 medium-size cloves garlic, finely chopped

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

1 pound dried spaghetti

Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese to taste

In a skillet over medium heat, bring the tomatoes, basil, garlic and 3 tablespoons of the oil to a simmer and cook until the tomatoes reach a saucelike consistency, or to the desired consistency, at least 25 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in plenty of rapidly boiling salted water until al dente.

Pour the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a heatproof bowl heated in a 200-degree oven. Drain the pasta and toss it with the heated oil. Pour the sauce over the top and toss gently to coat. Serve immediately. Pass the cheese on the side.

Per serving (based on 6): 393 calories, 12 gm protein, 62 gm carbohydrates, 10 gm fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 gm saturated fat, 85 mg sodium, 3 gm dietary fiber

I would switch to wheat or low-carb pasta. that would cut the carbs by half and add 6 grams of fiber. Add a squirt of lime or lemon instead salt.

You might see also The Low-Carb Comfort Food Cookbook


New Nietzschean Diet

Eat all you want of what you are afraid of.

"The basics of the Nietzschean regimen are simple," Hollingdale wrote in the book's foreword. "The dieter exercises a painful amount of self-honesty in order to identify the primary object of his or her deepest human dread as personified by a wide-ranging group of foodstuffs. Once the dieter's Fear has been identified, he eats that food exclusively, in unlimited amounts, until the food no longer appetizes or frightens him. "

"By conquering your Fear, by eating it in Heroic Portions, by laughing at that Fear which you have eaten, one avoids the Eternal Recurrence of cyclic 'Yo-Yo' Weight Loss and Weight Gain," Nietzsche wrote.

Fat Is Dead is selling briskly, as are the accompanying recipe pamphlets Beyond Food And Evil; Human, All Too Fat A Human; and Swiss Steak Zarathustra.

Stearns said it was worth noting that Nietzsche died depressed, delirious, and overweight in Zurich after 10 years of near-catatonia.

"Those wishing to begin a diet, let alone a highly moralistic pre-Freudian diet, should consult with their physicians," Stearns said. "Otherwise, they run the risk of long-term health problems - not to mention the possibility of their diet being misinterpreted by a rabidly cuisinophobic nationalist sect and used to justify a world takeover by diet Nazis."