Pasta: Is It an Unhealthy Refined Food?

Abstract

Pasta is a low glycemic index food, an essential part of the Mediterranean diet, and is a good source of fiber. Pasta is generally made from durum wheat semolina, which comprises coarse endosperm with largely structurally intact cell walls (that is, dietary fiber), unlike finely milled wheat flour that contains fragmented endosperm cells. Yet, pasta is considered a refined carbohydrate food and classified under "unhealthy plant-based diets" despite the health benefits and lack of negative effects observed in epidemiological and clinical trial data. There is, therefore, a need to redefine dietary carbohydrates, because the current terminology is no longer sufficient to understand their structural complexity or to fully define all positive attributes.

Keywords: cell wall integrity; chronic disease; dietary fiber; durum wheat semolina pasta; healthy plant-based diet.