Discover how to prepare healthy pasta dishes.
By Sharon Liao
Pasta cooks quickly, is convenient to have in your pantry, and is an easy solution for those times when you don’t know what to make for dinner. But because pasta is high in carbohydrates, some people consider it the enemy of weight and health, so it is often not even included on the menu.
“Pasta doesn’t deserve its bad reputation as a fattening food,” says Erin Morse, RD, lead clinical dietitian at UCLA Health Center. Neither are carbohydrates in general. In a 2018 study that was published in the medical journal The Lancet, scientists estimated that a 50-year-old person who got half their calories from carbohydrates would live 4 years longer than someone on a low-carbohydrate diet (less than 30 % of their calories) and a year longer than someone who followed a diet high in carbohydrates (more than 65% of their calories).
The health benefits of pasta
Conventional pasta is made from refined flour, which has been processed to remove the fiber-rich outer layers. However, the flour (called semolina) comes from durum wheat, which is higher in protein than other varieties. “Many pastas on the market are also fortified with iron and B vitamins,” says Dolores Woods, a registered dietitian at the UTHealth Public Health Institute in Houston. One cup of cooked pasta provides you with 8 grams of protein and 2.5 grams of fiber, plus 26% of the daily value for folate and 10% of iron, all for just 220 calories!
Pasta has some important differences from other refined carbohydrates. The starches and proteins in durum wheat stay together, so they take longer to be digested by the body. “Pasta can help you feel more satisfied than rice or white bread,” says Mengxi Du, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan University of Public Health in Boston. It also has a lower glycemic index or GI (a measure of how quickly a food raises your blood sugar) compared to other refined carbohydrates. Blood sugar levels remain more stable, which has benefits for your weight and health.
For example, in a study published in 2016 in the journal Nutrition & Diabetes, people who ate pasta as part of a Mediterranean diet had a lower body mass index and smaller waists than those who did not. And a 2021 study in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Healthy found that women ages 50 to 79 who ate pasta 3 to 4 times a week were 16% less likely to have a stroke and 9% less likely to have a stroke. of developing heart disease compared to those who ate it less than once a week.
The BMJ study was partially funded by the pasta industry, meaning more research is needed. However, pasta can be part of a healthy diet and is better for you than French fries and white bread, so switching between them can benefit your health, Morse says. Additionally, pasta is often combined with healthy foods, such as olive oil and vegetables.
Tips to keep your pasta healthy
Measure the portions. One serving of pasta is equal to 2 ounces of dry pasta or about 1 cup cooked. “It depends on the shape of the pasta, so it’s smart to measure it,” says Morse. If you estimate it visually, a cup of cooked pasta is about the size of a baseball.
Don’t overcook it. That breaks the bond between protein and starch. On the other hand, if you leave it a little firm, what we call “al dente,” says Du, you will maintain a low glycemic index and feel fuller for longer. Cooking times vary, so check package instructions.
Add vegetables. This increases fiber and nutrients. “Toss carrots, broccoli, bell peppers, or steamed leafy greens into your red sauce,” suggests Morse. You can also try asparagus, peas, squash, peppers and mushrooms, and a drizzle of olive oil. You can even replace half the pasta with “noodles” cut from fresh squash or another vegetable, Du says. Or simply heat frozen vegetables with your sauce and put it on top of the pasta.
Add a nutritious protein. Adding lean meat or cooked chicken, beans, legumes, or tofu can help make a serving of pasta more satisfying.
Choose a low sodium sauce. Half a cup of tomato sauce counts as one serving of vegetables in your diet. Sauces in a jar are often high in sodium; several that were evaluated in CR’s pasta sauce tests had 420 mg per serving. This is equivalent to 20% of the daily limit of 2,300 mg. The 2 highest-rated sauces, Silver Palate Low Sodium Marinara and Victoria Low Sodium Marinara, have only about 5% of the daily sodium limit.
Editor’s note: A version of this article was also published in the November 2023 issue of Consumer Reports On Health magazine.
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