Is pasta good or bad?

Ben · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:04 am Post subject: Is pasta good or bad?

Could anybody make it clear for me?! Is pasta good for dieting?

CutieChica · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:05 am Post subject:

Gush, I guess this is the most famous myth on dieting ever! I’ll clear things up for you, Ben! 100g of boiled pasta equals only 126 kcal and 1,3g fats. Besides, it’s perfect for energy and boosts up the secretion of happiness syndrome. That’s something! On top of that, the valuable B complex is found especially in pasta. What do you need the B complex so much, you ask?! Simple, because it regulates cellular metabolism and fortifies nervous system. All in all, I take pasta for the perfect dieting plan!

Dorianne · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:06 am Post subject:

I eat pasta especially when I need to lose some pounds before an important event or something similar. Embarassed

Anyway, I eat pasta twice a day and three or four fruit and cereal snacks and I loose about 1 pound a day or more.

CrystalEyes · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:07 am Post subject:

Thanks, guys! Never appreciated pasta that much, but now it seems like nice and easy to diet. Gonna try that and let you know! Wink

CutieChica · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:08 am Post subject:

glad it helped you! Tell us how it works, CrystalEYes, and post some pasta diet plans if you know any!

Timm · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:39 pm Post subject:

NOPE, pasta is not good for diet. Pasta and pizza are bad!

CutieChica · Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:25 pm Post subject:

I don’t know, Timm…It worked just fine for me. Anyway, if you tried it and didn’t work, you could tell us how it went. By the way, I never mentioned pizza. Pizza is a whole different story. Maybe you did something wrong...

Marcus · Posts: 2

Generally speaking, you need to reduce your intake of certain foods when you're trying to lose weight and keep it off.

Pasta is a great source of carbohydrate. Carbs are our primary energy source. In other words, your body burns them in preference to protein and fat as an energy supply.

Trouble is that most of us now have largely sedentary lives and don't need all that energy.

Sure, you need a good supply of carbs if you have an active lifestyle, a physically strenuous job or exercise regularly. You'll burn all that sugar and starch.

If you're pretty inactive or trying to lose weight, it's a good idea to cut back on - not cut out - the carbs.

Your body digests simple sugars and refined starches (white pasta, white bread, etc) quickly and deposits the sugar they release into your bloodstream. Your pancreas secretes insulin to regulate your blood sugar levels. If you're not pretty active and your body doesn't use all that blood glucose, it converts it to fat.

Eat too many carbs and you'll tend to store fat rather than burn it. However, slow release carbs - fruits (fructose, the sugar in fruit, is a slow release carb), most veg and wholegrains don't have the same effect on your blood sugar and are a better choice.

Remember, your body cannot burn fat without some carbs, so don't cut them out of your diet altogether.

The bottom line? Go easy on the pasta...and the white bread and rice...and choose fibre rich varieties when you do eat them. Better still, do some regular exercise and carbs will be less of a problem.

There are no good and bad foods, just good and bad diets. Get the balance right and a couple of modest servings of pasta a week will be fine. Very Happy

Hope this helps and best wishes!

Ben · Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 3:17 pm Post subject:

Marcus said[Generally speaking, you need to reduce your intake of certain foods when you're trying to lose weight and keep it off.

Pasta is a great source of carbohydrate. Carbs are our primary energy source. In other words, your body burns them in preference to protein and fat as an energy supply.

Trouble is that most of us now have largely sedentary lives and don't need all that energy.

Sure, you need a good supply of carbs if you have an active lifestyle, a physically strenuous job or exercise regularly. You'll burn all that sugar and starch.

If you're pretty inactive or trying to lose weight, it's a good idea to cut back on - not cut out - the carbs.

Your body digests simple sugars and refined starches (white pasta, white bread, etc) quickly and deposits the sugar they release into your bloodstream. Your pancreas secretes insulin to regulate your blood sugar levels. If you're not pretty active and your body doesn't use all that blood glucose, it converts it to fat.]
Thanks a lot, Marcus! It makes perfect sense what you’re saying. [/quote]

Fitness Coach · Posts: 4

Eating pasta is not bad when dieting if you eat it at the right time and in right portions. The time I would try to stay away from it is if your having dinner or having a really lazy day. Good times to eat pasta is around lunch or if you know you are going to work out later. Meeting your weight loss goals should not be difficult if you learn proper nutrition.

dfandsf · Posts: 10

The biggest problem with past is that we as americans eat pasta as kind of the main "meat" of our meal and as such we eat too big of a portion. If you look at Italians (the ones in Italy) they tend to be leaner than Italian americans and on average leaners than americans overall. They usually will have a small portion of pasta as a first course and then go into there entree later. This is importants because one of the reasons people over eat is because there bodies are low on carbs so our brains send out a signal urging us to eat but not really telling us to eat carbs specifically. After eating carbs it takes our bodies about 20 mins to fill the void and get the message to shut down the or back off the urge to eat. In the mean time we've shoved who knows how much food alot of which probably aren't even carbs into our faces. If we would have done what the Italians do and put our carbs first as a first course and then paused just a little bit before the next course we would have eaten much less overall.

Our habit of eating larger portions of pasta was probably started by early Italian imagrants who were too broke to buy alot of vegatable and meats and had to use cheap pasta to fill there bellys.

Goldm00n · Posts: 20

I know this is an older post but I just had to respond!

I eat pasta almost every day.

I love multi grain pasta!

Its not the pasta thats bad for you its all the stuff you put ON IT.

Plus how much! One serving size is about an ice cream scoop full. I put alittle olive oil on mine and butter buds.

Its a great "good carb" to have if you ask me!

Light · Posts: 2026

Its a good aliment but it depends on how its cooked. With a "light" dressing and salad will go great but with meatballs and mozzarella topping...
I have a friend in Italy. He is a pro football player at top level. The nutritionist there made the before match meal based on pasta. It have a good nutritional value and give the right carbs for energy.

qaswer · Posts: 50

No doubt that pasta is a great source of energy.It is very useful in dieting because it contains lower percentage of fat and full of energy.I may say that it is an energy booster .You can enjoy it in your dieting program.

miderno · Posts: 30

I imagine pasta to be a great source of energy for those who are, say, professional athletes who are on the move as their job anyway, but as far as I'm concerned pasta=carbs and I don't want to eat more the roughly twenty grams of carbs in a day.