Enjoy being thin! Eat cold pasta to control weight

After entering autumn, the weather is getting colder and colder, and we should start eating some foods that warm the stomach and replenish qi. However, cooling starchy foods may have unexpected benefits. According to foreign media reports, British nutritionists suggest that eating cold pasta can make you feel "slim", help with weight control, and is more suitable for diabetic patients to stabilize blood sugar and insulin. What is going on?

Eating cold pasta can help you lose weight, help control your weight, and is suitable for diabetics to stabilize their blood sugar and insulin.

Eating regular starch will make you fat, while eating resistant starch will make you thin

According to the Daily Mail, Denise Robertson, a professor of nutrition at the University of Surrey in the UK, pointed out that there is a saying in the market that "don't eat starch to lose weight" because starchy foods such as pasta or white bread will be broken down into sugar after entering the digestive system and are easily and quickly absorbed by the body. The amount of sugar intake and the speed of absorption are just like drinking a glass of sugary drink, causing a sudden rise in blood sugar. If these sugars cannot be consumed, they will be converted into fat by the body and accumulate to cause obesity.

However, if you eat "resistant starch", it will be different. Resistant starch, to put it simply, is starch that resists breakdown. When resistant starch enters the small intestine, it is not converted into sugar as quickly as regular starch. In addition, when resistant starch foods enter the large intestine, they can produce the same effect as dietary fiber, providing metabolism for about 1 kilogram of bacteria in the large intestine. In addition to helping smooth bowel movements, they can also be converted into short-chain fatty acids, thereby preventing heart disease and lowering blood pressure. Resistant starch is found in many foods, such as green bananas, beans, or raw oats.

Resistant starch vs. regular starch: The difference in blood sugar spikes

When you eat regular starchy foods, the starch is easily converted into sugars, causing a rapid rise in blood sugar. It also causes a rapid secretion of insulin to play a role in lowering blood sugar. However, long-term rapid rise and fall regulation will weaken the body's sensitivity to insulin. In severe cases, insulin may not be able to play its role in controlling blood sugar normally. The rapid secretion of insulin and rapid drop in blood sugar can also make people feel abnormally hungry. The starch eaten in this way becomes useless calories to the body. It has no nutritional value and also causes a feeling of hunger.

On the other hand, once resistant starch is eaten, it is not easily converted into sugar, and blood sugar and insulin will not rise sharply, and you will not feel hungrier the more you eat. Professor Robertson pointed out that if people want to eat more resistant starch, they just need to cook regular starchy foods, let them cool down first, and then eat them after they are cold!

Many starchy foods can increase their resistant starch content by cooking, cooling, and then reheating.

Reheating cold pasta can help control blood sugar levels

In order to verify whether eating cold starchy foods can really control blood sugar, the British BBC program "Trust me, I am a doctor" invited Dr. Christoffer van Tulleken, an infectious disease specialist at University College London, to conduct an actual experiment. Dr. van Tulleken divided the subjects into three groups. One group ate hot pasta that had just been cooked, the second group ate cold pasta, and the third group ate cold pasta that had been microwaved.

The results confirmed that cold pasta is less likely to cause a sudden rise in blood sugar and rapid secretion of insulin than freshly cooked pasta. However, the experimental team made a more surprising discovery, that is, the pasta that was cooled and then microwaved had a more obvious effect, which means that more resistant starch will be produced after heating, so that blood sugar and insulin will not fluctuate drastically during eating, and it also means that more fiber can promote intestinal peristalsis.

【Health Tips】:

Dr. van Tulleken points out that in addition to pasta, many starchy foods, such as bread, pizza, or potatoes, can increase the content of resistant starch by cooking, cooling, and reheating in this way. However, he also mentioned that the effectiveness of reheating by microwave or other means must be confirmed by more experiments. I would like to remind everyone that eating resistant starch foods is not the secret to solving the problem of obesity. If you want to control your weight and lose weight, you should start by improving your diet and lifestyle habits in all aspects.