{"id":46016,"date":"2017-02-28T06:53:21","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T11:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=46016"},"modified":"2017-03-01T10:21:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T15:21:03","slug":"readers-digest-says-pasta-doesnt-spike-your-blood-sugar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=46016","title":{"rendered":"Reader’s Digest Says Pasta Doesn’t Spike Your Blood Sugar"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the start of every new year, lists abound detailing what we should and should not eat. These how-to eat-healthy headlines beckon as the one thing standing between us and perfection. Thankfully the lists target everyone, not solely those of us with diabetes, but I\u2019d had enough when I spied a Reader\u2019s Digest article touting the 50 Best Healthy-Eating Tips of All Time.<\/a><\/p>\n

The phrase \u201cof all time\u201d is probably what threw me over the edge.<\/p>\n

The problem with making big sweeping statements about what we should eat is that we are all radically different. Regardless of the commonalities we might share\u2013\u2013taking insulin, watching our weight, avoiding gluten\u2013\u2013we are of different genetic makeup, weight, age and gender.<\/p>\n

Tufts University recently came out with a study<\/a> that showed that low glycemic and high glycemic foods<\/a> react differently in different people. I always assumed that if two people ate a ripe banana they would have the same basic reaction: their blood sugar would rise quickly. But, in \u201crepeated tests involving 63 healthy adults, researchers found that individual blood sugar responses after consuming a fixed amount of white bread could range across all three glycemic index categories (low, medium, or high).\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar study<\/a> out of Israel that tracked the blood sugars of 800 people after eating certain good and bad meals, came to similar conclusions. \u201cThe huge differences that we found in the rise of blood sugar levels among different people who consumed identical meals highlights why personalized eating choices are more likely to help people stay healthy than universal dietary advice,\u201d said Professor Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute of Science, which conducted the study.<\/p>\n

Interesting right? Even what we think is definitive isn\u2019t, and even the studies we point to for proof can have other studies that report the inverse, which is why I think that following broadly stroked diet recommendations is potentially harmful. Remember those famously low-fat SnackWell\u2019s<\/a> cookies? Nabisco replaced the missing fat with sugar, which elevated the carbohydrates and it eventually backfired. Today people are embracing fat and eschewing sugar.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t address everything in the Reader\u2019s Digest list, because many of the tips are common sense suggestions, like making berries your go-to fruit. They\u2019re right. Berries are high in fiber and protein and they don\u2019t pack the carb punch of those bananas in my previous paragraph. But, there are a few very misleading tips that I take umbrage with.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the worst: Pasta actually doesn’t spike blood sugar.<\/p>\n

WHAT???<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what they write: \u201cBecause pasta is extruded to make shapes, it takes longer to digest, so even though it has the same ingredients as white bread, it doesn\u2019t cause a rapid sugar spike,\u201d says Sara Baer-Sinnott, who is the president of Oldways<\/a>, a non-profit focused on nutrition. But Baer-Sinnott is an administrator without a medical background and Oldways is funded largely by big business, including pasta companies like Barilla and General Mills.<\/p>\n

In her \u201calternative facts\u201d line of thinking, maybe we can also eat licorice because that\u2019s an extruded shape?<\/p>\n

To set the record straight, I talked to endocrinologist Dr. Mariela Glandt<\/a>, who confirmed that pasta, regardless of its extrudedness, will raise blood sugar. Sorry, folks, but rigatoni tubes are not going to be your panacea.<\/p>\n

Baer-Sinnott does have one valid point, which is that \u201covercooking or overeating pasta will still raise blood sugar.\u201d I\u2019ll focus on overcooking, which does increase the glycemic index of your pasta because of how starches develop with prolonged cooking. (Dr. Glandt confirmed not only that eating pasta will raise blood sugar, but also overeating will).<\/p>\n

There are a few other suggestions on the Reader\u2019s Digest list that I also find misleading like this one about turmeric: \u201cA dash of turmeric can prevent cancer.\u201d Cancer? Come on now. First, they don\u2019t tell you that you need to eat fresh turmeric, not the spice and not tablets. And while there are many who will say turmeric helps their internal inflammation\u2013\u2013testing for inflammation can be done with a blood test looking for elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, but other reports are purely anecdotal\u2013\u2013no one has reported it to prevent cancer. There\u2019s also a recent study<\/a> that reports that \u201cno double-blinded, placebo controlled clinical trial of curcumin has been successful.\u201d Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric.<\/p>\n

Celine Beitchman, an instructor at the Natural Gourmet Institute<\/a> tells us she tends to \u201cshy away from dietary substances,\u201d and, while seductive, \u201ctheir effects rarely hold up over time.\u201d Her questions are many: Do we need to eat them whole? cooked? raw? and at what dosage? \u201cThere seems to be little harm in using them, they may complement a prudent diet, but there\u2019s no consensus on how much to take for specific benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

My last gripe is the statement that organic isn’t the healthiest option. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, the expert for this \u201ctip,\u201d has a good resume but his opinion, that \u201cthere\u2019s little science showing that [organic or local foods] relate to health\u201d is ridiculous. I don\u2019t know how Mozaffarian can claim that there is \u201clittle science\u201d to choose organic over conventional. There are numerous studies that report on both higher levels of beneficial nutrients<\/a> in organic produce as well as lower levels of pesticide<\/a> residue. Perhaps when all of our produce is grown indoors in vertical farms we might see organic and non-organic become interchangeable, but for now, if you don\u2019t know the farmer and you can afford it, organic is the better option.<\/p>\n

Not wanting to be the only voice here, I asked Amie Valpone, author of Eating Clean<\/a>, what she thought. \u201cOrganic foods have less pesticides, herbicides and chemicals on them that tax our livers and overall health,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

I know we don\u2019t all have time to heavily research every little morsel we eat, but beware, if it looks like a catchy headline\u2014listicles, best-of\u2019s, top superfoods\u2014chances are you should take it with a large grain of organic, sustainable, locally grown salt.<\/p>\n

P.S. Cinnamon doesn\u2019t cure diabetes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":46027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1453],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nReader's Digest Says Pasta Doesn't Spike Your Blood Sugar<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reader's Digest published a few very misleading tips that I take umbrage with.The worst: Pasta actually doesn't spike blood sugar.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=46016\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Larissa Zimberoff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=46016\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=46016\",\"name\":\"Reader's Digest Says Pasta Doesn't Spike Your Blood Sugar\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=46016#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=46016#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/readers-digest-says-pasta-doesnt-spike-your-blood-sugar-2-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-28T11:53:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-01T15:21:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/66727059a59313c4f549beae0c1fceb1\"},\"description\":\"Reader's Digest published a few very misleading tips that I take umbrage with.The worst: Pasta actually doesn't spike blood sugar.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=46016#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=46016\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=46016#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/readers-digest-says-pasta-doesnt-spike-your-blood-sugar-2-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/readers-digest-says-pasta-doesnt-spike-your-blood-sugar-2-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1828,\"caption\":\"Reader's Digest Says Pasta Doesn't Spike Your Blood Sugar\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=46016#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Reader’s Digest Says Pasta Doesn’t Spike Your Blood Sugar\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\",\"name\":\"ASweetLife\",\"description\":\"The Diabetes Magazine\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/66727059a59313c4f549beae0c1fceb1\",\"name\":\"Larissa Zimberoff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c4b44e0f01d6c2d24be23341f293e3fe?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c4b44e0f01d6c2d24be23341f293e3fe?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Larissa Zimberoff\"},\"description\":\"Larissa Zimberoff was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 12-years old. 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