Yes, of course, this would be an English question. From the BBC:
… A rapid rise in blood glucose, followed by a rapid fall, can often make you feel hungry again quite soon after a meal. It’s true of sugary sweets and cakes, but it’s also true for things like pasta, potatoes, white rice and white bread. That’s why dieticians emphasise the importance of eating foods that are rich in fibre, as these foods produce a much more gradual rise and fall in your blood sugars.
But what if you could change pasta or potatoes into a food that, to the body, acts much more like fibre? Well, it seems you can. Cooking pasta and then cooling it down changes the structure of the pasta, turning it into something that is called “resistant starch”.
It’s called “resistant starch” because once pasta, potatoes or any starchy food is cooked and cooled it becomes resistant to the normal enzymes in our gut that break carbohydrates down and releases glucose that then causes the familiar blood sugar surge.
So, according to scientist Dr Denise Robertson, from the University of Surrey, if you cook and cool pasta down then your body will treat it much more like fibre, creating a smaller glucose peak and helping feed the good bacteria that reside down in your gut. You will also absorb fewer calories, making this a win-win situation.
One obvious problem is that many people don’t really like cold pasta. So what would happen if you took the cold pasta and warmed it up?…
Medical researchers recruited volunteers to eat pasta “with a plain but delicious sauce of tomatoes and garlic” — fresh, cold, or reheated — and have their blood glucose tested afterwards:
Just as expected, eating cold pasta led to a smaller spike in blood glucose and insulin than eating freshly boiled pasta had.
But then we found something that we really didn’t expect – cooking, cooling and then reheating the pasta had an even more dramatic effect. Or, to be precise, an even smaller effect on blood glucose.
In fact, it reduced the rise in blood glucose by 50%.
This certainly suggests that reheating the pasta made it into an even more “resistant starch”. It’s an extraordinary result and one never measured before.
Denise is now going to continue her research – funded by Diabetes UK – looking at whether, even without other dietary modifications, adding resistant starch to the diet can improve some of the blood results associated with diabetes…
More detail at the link. Others have been quick to point out that resistant starch has the same calorie count as ‘regular’ pasta, but calories aren’t the sole health issue here.
mainmati
Also, many folks end up reheating leftover pasta. Also, if you make your own sauce, you are potentially mitigating the “bad” impacts of the pasta. There’s also whole wheat pasta, which I think is pasty but acceptable if cooked barely al dente.
Then again, there’s also exercise….known to be a part of reducing people at risk of adult onset diabetes.
So lots of alternatives really.
Ronnie Pudding
One obvious problem is that many people don’t really like cold pasta
Macaroni salad?
Tree With Water
I’ve always preferred leftover spaghetti to its opening night– it allows the sauce to soak in.
Violet
Resistant starch is a prebiotic. That’s what gut bacteria eat. Probiotics will go right through you if the food they eat isn’t there to keep them around. There are various forms of resistant starch. Cooked and cooled starches form RS3, which is fuel for a lot of stuff in our gut. Part of the reason blood glucose doesn’t go up as much is that the gut bacteria are eating it and it doesn’t make it into the blood stream as quickly as it does in its pure starch form that the bacteria generally don’t eat.
You can increase resistant starch by cooking, cooling, re-heating, and cooling again (and again, etc.). In fact, some of the food manufacturing companies use this technique to create starch for use in prepared foods.
Nicole
This is really interesting.
My husband and I, thanks to signing up for a farm share this summer, discovered spaghetti squash really does make an acceptable substitute for when we’re really craving pasta. Costco also sells a black bean pasta that I like a lot.
We tried the pasta made from shitake mushrooms, but the texture is odd and it smells to high heaven.
Chris T.
It’s complicated.
It’s simple at first. It’s just “calories in minus calories out” … but you can’t measure “calories in” with a simple bomb calorimeter*—well, you can, but if you do you have to measure “calories out” in the, er, output product too, because not every calorie that goes in the mouth gets digested.
And then there’s “calories out”, as in, burned in daily living and exercise. It turns out that “calories out” is partly a function of “calories in”: your body temperature, for instance, changes with what you eat. If you take in fewer calories, you burn fewer calories too. At some point (what point, varies per individual) in reduced daily intake, you get very sleepy. If you’re a natural fidgeter, your fidgeting slows or even stops.
Even if you’re not diabetic, GI and GL count too, as observed in the quoted article.
(*That’s what they’re called. I’m not sure why.)
Mike in NC
Ate at a place in Scotland about 10 years ago where they served deep-fried pizza. It was pretty horrible; best to stick with fish and chips.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike in NC: The Scots can be a bit odd about food. The salmon is lovely though.
ETA: It’s also hard to fuck-up venison as long as you eat it hot – before the tallow starts to harden.
raven
The White Tiger was just on Offbeat Eats on the Cooking Channel and yours truly got his mug in the show!
NotMax
From KFC’s Korea menu, a trio of sandwiches which might well pack on pounds merely by looking at the pictures.
#1 – #2 – #3
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Feckin’ awful.
Mike E
Wow. Looks like my “batch” cooking routine is not just a money saver, but also healthy, too. My fave pasta to stick in the fridge is penne (12 oz into a jar-full of Classico DiCampania).
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: There were three joints featured on this episode of Offbeat Eats. Two of them had all kinds of triple donut hamburgers and corndogs stuffed with crap. My man had simple healthy tofu tacos and a BBQ sammy with mozz called a Barbarella. I liked it because they stressed the White Tigers emphasis on simplicity.
Comrade Mary
I’ve been moving more and eating carefully (but not antihedonically) since midsummer and have dropped about 15 pounds without feeling hungry or resentful.
I’ve been eating cooked and cooled potatoes for breakfast almost daily, usually as sliced potatoes fried in a little olive oil with a couple of poached eggs over it, plus some garden tomatoes, plus a big mug of strong tea and milk. This leaves me full for a few hours without any kind of sugar crash.
On a few heavy deadline days, when I did not have time to cook and clean up after myself, I cooked up 3 pounds of potatoes in a pressure cooker (scrubbed but unpeeled Yukon Golds) and snacked on them throughout the day, adding copious cups of tea and a couple of eggs. Wasn’t hungry at all.
So yeah, I am here to preach the gospel of RS3. It’s real, and it’s fabulous.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven:
Sounds yummy.
NotMax
@Omes Omnibus
Was once served a venison stew by the proud cook in which the meat still had fur on it.
Tree With Water
Seek out bucatini (a/k/a perciatelli), which is a slightly huskier spaghetti with a hole through the center, which holds the sauce quite nicely
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Our friend from Madison had brunch there a couple of weeks back.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax:
Where was this?
srv
It just never stops – always cool before it was cool.
Have always made extra pasta as a leftover when everyone else was a hater. But I prefer it reheated, whereas cold leftover meatloaf sandwiches are teh bomb.
Omnes Omnibus
@srv:
Well, no fucking shit.
Mike in NC
@Omnes Omnibus: Best to avoid the haggis altogether unless you have a fifth of Scotch to wash away the taste.
JGabriel
Joe Sonka @ InsiderLouisville via DKos:
Of course not. Because telling people what you intend to do in office would make for a, watchamacallit, an informed electorate. Can’t have one of those, Mitch. An informed electorate wouldn’t vote for you.
I like how Republicans justify not revealing their plans because they might get attacked. That’s a real pro-democracy spirit they got in that party.
Comrade Mary
Oh, there’s more about that BBC show here, including video.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike in NC: I’ve actually never had it. Willing to try, of course. If I do, I’ll have my Famous Grouse nearby. OTOH, I like things like shepherds’ pie that came with my family to the US. I’ve no Scots ancestry (nor Irish).
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
In the Poconos. Not a commercial eatery, it was home cooking. And not in a good way.
@Mike in NC
As with all things gustatory, YMMV, but beg to differ – haggis can be really, really tasty. Very reminiscent of stuffed derma. When was in Scotland, it’s what I would order at the ‘chipper’ while mates were munching down on bland fish ‘n’ chips.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Eh, just hit a kebab joint.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Was there in 1974. No kebabs then.
In fact, had the worst Chinese food ever at what was the sole Chinese restaurant in Aberdeen. Totally ghastly. Not quite sure how they managed it, but would swear everything had been boiled for a solid week to absolute tastelessness in the then still common British method, and then seasoned to about 200% the salinity of a cattle salt lick.
cokane
guess this explains why pasta salad seems healthy
beth
@efgoldman: Reminds me of John McCain during a presidential debate saying he knew where Bin Laden was and how to get him. Of course we’d have to elect him to find out.
Mike E
@NotMax: The Poconos area has a “put the lotion in the basket” vibe. Some scary-ass rednecks there, for sure.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: I was there ten years later. Doner Kebabs with hot sauce were definitely a thing. Tempus fugit.
ETA: I also was able to frequently get a free meal in Indian restaurants by betting that I could eat the hottest thing they could order for me without taking a drink.
Mike J
@beth:
McCain also said he’d chase bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he wouldn’t go after him in Pakistan.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: Let’s go for an English. I’m gonna order the blandest thing on the menu!
raven
@Mike J: I assume you know he was a POW?
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: WHAT?!!!!!!! He has kept it ever so quiet.
Culture of Truth
This is also true of styrofoam
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes my friend, yes.
Joel
As long as you don’t reheat chicken, you are good with me.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Golly. Oh, well, he still seems to be an ass who is trying to measure up to his flag rank ancestors and failing…..
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Big time. And now that the Royals have won, winkin blinkin and nod.
John Revolta
ROYALZZZ BITCHEZZZZ
Hal
I used to go to Naan ‘N Curry in San Francisco years ago with friends and binge on the Naan and Biryani. Stuffed for two or three hours, then ready for dinner. Though I’m some of that might have been to the, shall we say, laxative effects of Indian food. Combine with red wine at your own risk.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: Wonder how much that has changed and varied by decade and exact location. On a visit during the late 70s/early 80s we made a habit of hitting all the Indian places possible, but there was a Tandoor place in . . . Brentwood, I think, that nearly lifted all our skulls with its chicken. I’ve never encountered its equivalent since.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hal: Actually, a lot of Indian food is better with a sweet wine.
Omnes Omnibus
@scav: I lived in Bayswater while I was there. On the edge of Paddington. I was about a block from the Lancaster Gate tube stop.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: Dad was there on business so we had to be out near certain telephone central office exchanges, hence the suburbs on beyond Liverpool Street stn. Shouldn’t grumble, we had to stay there more than a month for the testing to burn in.
Omnes Omnibus
@scav: One of my locals back then….
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: You were having far more fun.
Omnes Omnibus
@scav: One has stories. OTOH, one intends to hold them in until dances in her bones is around. After all, quid pro quo..
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus: I heard that.
Let me think….I told you the truck driver story?
Omnes Omnibus
@dance around in your bones: Which one? In fairness, I should note that I really need to get to bed soon.
Anne Laurie
@Mike in NC:
I’m waiting for the foodies to bring it to high-end restaurants here as “deconstructed artisan sausage” — although I’m sure they’ll find a much more precious name. If you want nose-to-tail eating and unrefined grains, chopped sheep entrails mixed with stone-cut oats in a tripe casing will surely strike some fashionistas as quite out of the common! Of course, the chef will have to spice it a lot more aggressively than the Scots original, and probably not with Heinz Curry Sauce either… and of course, the finished dish will be soaked and served with local craft moonshine…
aimai
@NotMax: Around that time–maybe 1976, I was the only white person in a chinese restaurant in Cheltenham, England, to have ever ordered anything actually chinese. Pork dumplings/jiaodze. Everyone including the cook came out of the kitchen to look at me. It was terribly funny. Four or five guys came out to look shocked that I wasn’t ordering the fish and chips they also had on the menu.
dance around in your bones
@dance around in your bones: Ok, just in case I didn’t – if you’re a dedicated follower of my stories :)
Mt sister and I were hitch hiking from San Francisco to ABQ (long back story) and the first guys who picked us up were a couple of black guys in a pimp mobile. “You wanna got to San Bernadino, Baby? I’ll take you to San Bernadino!”
We didn’t get one block before one of the guys threw his arm across the seat and said “slide on over here, baby” at which point my sister pulled out her Swiss Army knife and started screaming. REAL loud. They dumped us on the corner.
Of course, we were STILL trying to get to ABQ, so we ended up sticking our thumbs out on the freeway, and a nice truckdriver picked us up and said he’d take us all the way to Los Angeles. Woot! We hopped into the cab with him and drove and drove and my sister got sleepy and went to bed in his bed place behind the seats?
Pretty soon he started asking me “Have you ever seen the phosphorus on the ocean at night?” I admitted I had not (grew up in landlocked ABQ). He said, let’s pull over and go look at the phosphorus….so we did. There was a low sea wall about mid thigh high (and I swear to you this is TRUE!) and he said “Watch This!!” and hopped over the wall.
I didn’t hear anything, and I didn’t hear anything and finally I looked over the wall to see that it was at least 50 feet down to the beach and there was a tiny figure moaning down there.
The truck driver.
I ran back to the truck and woke up my sister “OMG I think the truck driver is DEAD!!” So we had to stand on the side of the freeway and flag down a police car (which was a bit problematic as one of us (I won’t say who) had a few tabs of acid in her pocket.
The highway patrol came by, took us and the truck driver to the hospital and told us later that “we must have had an angel on our shoulder” because truck driver guy had about 3-4 different ID’s.
The cops took us to a coffee shop and told the waitresses to keep an eye on us all night, and the cops would be checking in every couple of hours or so.
They did. There is much more to this story but I believe I have gone on too long already :)
Just for you, Omnes (well, and whoever else cares to listen).
eta*that was for Omnes; I already KNOW the story!
Anne Laurie
@NotMax:
You know, I’d never made that connection… possibly because I haven’t had really good kishke since I left the Bronx, sigh. Now I’m hungry for chopped chicken liver…
JCJ
@dance around in your bones:
Yikes! That is quite the story! And that is the abridged version?
WaterGirl
@dance around in your bones: Great story, but scary! If Omnes has already gone to bed, I’m sure he will look for it in the morning.
I don’t know if everyone is as stupid as I was as a young woman, but looking back I can see that I was in a lot of scary/risky situations and had no idea at the time. Crazy.
dance around in your bones
@JCJ: Oh yeah – it goes on and on.Maybe someday I’ll share the rest, or write the book, as Omnes keeps telling me to do.
@WaterGirl:
Jeez, we did a LOT of stupid things as young girls – hitch hiking was a la mode in the late 60’s/early 70’s. and I remember a few kinda squicky guys, Luckily, nothing ever really bad happened to me.
The truck driver story happened when I was 15 and my sister was 16. Our parents had given up hope of controlling us by that point.
Summer of Love! Hippies in the Haight!
eta: Plus, the parental units were getting a divorce, so I pretended like i didn’t care and just booked.
Uncle Cosmo
@Mike E: I wonder if this also holds for Dreamfields pasta, which is pretty much what I limit myself to as an Italo-American type II diabetic–because that’s how I cook it, a box at a time to be reheated with veggies & red or white sauce depending on what veggies & meat are at hand (frozen precooked meatballs with Uncle Cosmo’s Nekkid Ratatouille & red sauce, pork or fowl with broccoli or green beans & white).
WaterGirl
@dance around in your bones: Yikes, 15 and 16, that’s really young. We were all pretty lucky that nothing worse ever happened.
dance around in your bones
@WaterGirl:
I thought I was all grown up – nobody could tell me shit! I remember arguing with my parents that I didn’t need to be all bourgeois like them and I could live in a teepee and grow my own food. I’m sure they thought I had gone quite around the bend.
Radio One
my cat is simultaneously happy, fat, and yet still pissed off at me for some reason. what am I doing wrong?
scav
@Radio One: Expecting different behavior from a cat?
slag
Interesting. I wonder if these findings might relate to frozen pasta after it’s heated in the microwave.
NotMax
@Anne Laurie – @efgoldman
Chopped liver is ridiculously easy to make. Excellent, memorable chopped liver maybe not so much, but even the most novice cook can prepare perfectly passable chopped liver so long as five rules are observed, IMHO.
1) Don’t overcook the livers or they’ll become too dry and tough. Just past (or with the scantest presence of) pink in the center – they’ll continue to cook for a bit when removed from heat.
2) Remove the membranes from livers (either before or after cooking them).
3) Hard cook the heck out of the eggs. Let those ovoids dance in the boiling water for at least 10 minutes, then place in cold or ice water before peeling.
4) Avoid overchopping/mashing/processing the cooked livers – the product should be slightly coarse (how much so depends on personal preference) but definitely not uniformly smooth.
5) Let finished product come to room temperature and then refrigerate for a minimum of a couple of hours before serving in order to have flavors intermingle and meld.
If the chopped liver comes out drier than you like, one can mix in additional oil or chicken fat, but I like to mix in a bit of mashed boiled carrot as a binder instead. Toss carrot in with the boiling water the eggs are cooking in; saves a pan and it’s ready should you need it.
Omnes Omnibus
@dance around in your bones: Thanks.
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus: Sheesh, that’s it? You’re welcome?
I bet you would’ve loved it last night, but you had to go to bed….well, our bodies just have to die a little each night so we can get on with the next day.
catclub
@efgoldman:
Which he passed to John McCain as a secret plan to get Bin Laden. Idiot.
tom
@Tree With Water:
That might be due to people putting the sauce on *after* the pasta is cooked. You’re supposed to cook the pasta not quite to finished, then transfer it to the sauce pot to finish cooking so it absorbs the sauce. Top with more sauce, if you need it, when you plate.
Also that first paragraph about the rise and fall of your blood sugar is the important one for people looking to lose weight as that is what will really help prevent off over eating.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@dance around in your bones:
There’s a reason that one of the most common parental curses is, “I hope that when you grow up and have kids, at least one of them will be just like you!
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Gads, no kidding!!
I have apologized to my parents many times for all the grief I gave them as a teenager. I truly am sorry for it, but in my mind I was just living my life w/o outside interference!
Kids, what the hell you do ya do with these kids today?
Why isn’t linky thingie working for me today??? FYWP
On the other hand, back in my day,
The Who said the kids are alright, so there’s that.
href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrZ4sMRYimw”>
Ok linky thingy totally fucked. Too early for me to be totally fucked up.