Pasta
Where pasta sits on the inflammation scale
Pasta is mildly inflammatory, and the surprise is how mildly. It is refined wheat, the same raw material as white bread, but it does not behave like it. Dried pasta is made by pressing durum wheat flour into a dense shape and drying it hard, which traps the starch inside a mesh of protein. The body has to work through that mesh, so the sugar arrives slowly.
Pasta scores 6 out of 10 on the inflammation scale, and most of that number is about how it gets eaten. Two habits undo the structure. The first is boiling it soft: past al dente the mesh breaks down and the starch turns into sugar much faster. The second is the plate. In Italy pasta is a first course in a small dish, and elsewhere it is the whole dinner, three or four times as much.
Whatever arrives on top matters as much. Tomato, garlic and olive oil make one of the better plates you can eat. Cream, cheese and bacon make a different meal, and the pasta takes the blame. Pasta also carries gluten. For the one person in a hundred with coeliac disease, whose immune system attacks that protein, it is not a matter of degree at all.
So pasta is not a food to be afraid of. Keep it al dente, keep the serving to about a fist, and let protein and vegetables take up as much of the plate as the pasta does.
Pasta on the AIP diet
Pasta is not allowed on the Autoimmune Protocol. The elimination phase takes out every grain, and wheat pasta is the clearest case of all, because it is refined grain and gluten in the same mouthful. It is also one of the last things people test when they start adding foods back, and plenty never bring it back at all. Cassava and sweet potato noodles are the compliant way to keep the shape.
Benefits
- The dense dried shape releases its sugar more slowly than bread made from the same flour
- Durum wheat gives it more protein than most refined grains, around 8 g a cooked cup
- Eaten as part of a normal diet it is not linked to weight gain
- A useful source of selenium and manganese, which most refined grains have lost
Watch out for
- It is refined wheat, so the bran, the germ and most of the fibre are gone
- Boiled past al dente it turns into sugar much faster
- Servings outside Italy are often three or four times a first course
- It contains gluten, so it is out for coeliacs and during AIP elimination
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Frequently asked
Is pasta inflammatory?
Mildly. It is refined wheat, so the fibre is gone, but the way it is pressed and dried leaves the starch locked inside a mesh of protein, and that slows the sugar down. A normal serving cooked al dente does very little. A deep plate of soft pasta under a cream sauce is a different question.
Is whole wheat pasta better?
It keeps the bran and the germ, so it has more fibre and more magnesium, and it fills you up sooner. The gap is smaller than it is with bread, because ordinary pasta already digests slowly. If you like the taste, use it. If you do not, cooking white pasta al dente gets you most of the way.
Is gluten free pasta less inflammatory?
Not automatically. Most of it is made from white rice flour and corn starch, which are refined too, and without gluten holding the shape together it often cooks softer and digests faster. It is the right choice for coeliacs. For everyone else it is a swap, not an upgrade.
Can I eat pasta on an anti-inflammatory diet?
Yes. Cook it al dente, keep the serving to about a cup, and dress it with tomato, vegetables and olive oil rather than cream and cheese. The exceptions are coeliac disease, where wheat pasta is off the table entirely, and the Autoimmune Protocol, which removes every grain during the elimination phase.
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