Eat up! Study finds pasta can aid weight loss

If you’re a fan of tucking into a tasty bowl, or two, of pasta, you’re in luck. A new study has found that eating pasta can help you lose weight. 

While pasta has never been formally shunned by dieticians and health guidelines, popular low carb diets have made it the pariah of the food chain. However, new research published in the journal BMJ Open found that eating pasta wasn’t linked to gaining weight and when teamed with the right diet, could actually help people drop a few kilos.

Researchers said pasta isn’t usually assessed in detail when it comes to weight gain.

“Much of the attention has focused on sugars, but traditional carbohydrate staples like pasta, rice and breads are increasingly being implicated in the epidemics of overweight and obesity,” the study’s authors wrote. “Although systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of dietary patterns that include these foods but are low in glycaemic index (GI), high in whole grains and/or high in dietary fibre have shown advantages for weight-related outcomes, there has been a general lack of recognition of the importance of carbohydrate quality.”

For their study, researchers set out to test the impact eating pasta had on weight gain. They discovered that when consumed with other low-glycemic index foods, pasta could help the subject lose weight. The study analysed 29 different studies consisting of 2,500 people who either ate pasta as part of a low-glycemic diet or ate other carbohydrates with a high-glycemic diet.

What researchers discovered was people who ate pasta were more likely to lose weight over 12 weeks. In fact, most of the participants who ate pasta lost an average of half a kilogram during that period.

Read more: Are you a slow eater? It could be the key to losing weight

Foods with a low-glycemic index (low GI) don’t usually cause blood sugar to spike. Unlike other refined carbohydrates, pasta is generally has a lower GI level. 

While the news will certainly be welcomed by pasta lovers, it’s not an excuse to over-indulge in the delicious dish. Participants in the study only ate pasta three or four times a week. Furthermore, it was part of a strict low-glycemic index diet, which typically result in weight loss, reduced blood sugar levels and can also decrease the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

These low GI foods are more filling, so people don’t need to eat as much to feel satisfied. Researchers said that more testing is needed to assess the long-term benefits of regular pasta consumption.

“Although the clinical significance of the observed weight loss is debatable, this finding increases our confidence that pasta in the context of low-GI dietary patterns does not result in weight gain,” the researchers said.

“Other randomised trials should focus on whether pasta will have similar effects in the context of other ‘healthy’ dietary patterns such as a Mediterranean diet.”

What do you think? Do you think eating pasta can actually help you lose weight? Are there any foods you eat that help you shed the kilos?