Why the Italians have always been right about cooking pasta

It is an eternal debate, which has pitted Italians against the rest of the world. Pasta, undercooked or well cooked? Al dente Or soft? Hammered or spoon-shaped? Science has spoken, and dispelled any doubts: the less cooked it is, the better, because it will be healthier. Sinking your teeth into the pasta, chewing it thoroughly to digest it, is good because then the glycemic index doesn't rise rapidly, and this is essential for the body, and for having energy in the long term, too, says nutritionist Anna Grífols.

Since this topic is part of nutrition studies, it's worth clarifying. The demon of food isn't carbohydrates.but the way we eat themNeither pasta, white rice, nor white bread are inherently bad; it's how we combine them and, in the case of pasta, how we cook them. Overcooked spaghetti is filling because it swells with the water it was boiled in. This causes the sugars from the carbohydrates to be released quickly into the body, which is why we feel so full as soon as we eat it. But alas! A few hours later, we'll be hungry again. This explains what causes a spike in blood sugar: it rises and then falls. And we'll want to satisfy that hunger with fast food, which probably won't be healthy.

Pasta manufacturers usually indicate two cooking methods on the packages: boiled and al denteIt's a tradition. And not everyone can eat it. al denteBecause it's also true that some metabolisms don't tolerate it well, requiring pasta to be cooked or soft. In this case (and always), the recommendation is to combine it with vegetables, which will counteract the sugar that pasta is converted into in the body.

The Harvard plate, quite graphic

With vegetables, we open another chapter. The most important one. When Harvard introduced the plate diagram to understand what meals should look like, We knew clearly that every meal should always contain 50% vegetables. The rest should be protein and carbohydrates. Just last week, the United States government published a new food pyramid that emphasizes whole grains (like pasta). So, if we eat a plate of pasta, preferably whole grain, to follow the Harvard guidelines, we should eat it with vegetables, which should be more abundant than pasta. We would then be lacking protein, which can be animal or plant-based. If we make a Italian ragù, which would be our stew with a long, slow-cooked sofrito, and we already have everything. If not, we can add some chickpeas or another legume (green beans are legumes!), which mixed with pasta and roasted vegetables, makes a perfect dish. The point is that if we only eat pasta with tomato sauce (And let's remember what a real tomato sauce should be like.We don't eat a balanced diet because we lack protein. And what's more—and here we encounter one of the food industry's biggest deceptions—if we eat colorful pasta to increase our vegetable intake, we should know that it's not true. Marketing has led us to believe that the colors of those curls come from vegetables, but in reality, it only contains 1%. If you don't believe me, check the label. Vegetables come from the earth in various forms, but never in the form of pasta. In conclusion, when it comes to eating pasta, the Italians have always been right, and it's about time we listened to them.