10 replies to this topic

[Reincarnatian]

According to the insulin index:

http://en.wikipedia....i/Insulin_index

 

In terms of insulin and glucose (per 1000KJ), refined white pasta seems really great. It has better scores than rice and beans. 

I just wanted to inform you out there.

Does anybody have an opinion on this? Any comment on the studies leading to the insulin index? 

 

[misterE]

Eating foods that are insulinogenic actually prevents diabetes, because insulin shuts off the production of glucocorticoids. Glucocorticoids like GH, cortisol and glucagon actually promote insulin-resistance and diabetes. The reason people are scared of white-pasta or pasta in general is because they have been brainwashed into thinking that white-flour will turn into blood-sugar and increase insulin... and since diabetes is a disease of high blood-sugar and high insulin, removing white-flour from the diet will cure their diabetes; nothing is further from the truth:

 

 

 

http://www.longecity...ate-deficiency/

 

[StephCThomp]

...brainwashed into thinking that white-flour will turn into blood-sugar...

 

Starch + Amylase in saliva = sugars.  White flour turns into sugars before it even hits your stomach. 

 

Are you saying this is merely a rumour?  That we are brainwashing our 9 years olds in Biology class with those starch + iodine + spittle experiments?  How are you saying starches are actually digested, if not this way?
 

[StephCThomp]

Reincarnation, to answer your original question, yes those data do look odd.  It's hard to fathom that cake, donuts, ice cream and Mars Bars would really be lower GI than brown rice and brown bread, or why white pasta comes out so low, similar to eating an egg!

 

Remember that rice and bread are never eaten on their own, but with fats and proteins, which would reduce the net GI.  So a more relevant comparison might be between ice cream or Mars Bars, and risotto or cheese sandwiches . 

 

The white pasta is still a mystery though.  I would not rely on these data as being accurate, until we know more.

 

 

[timar]

Reincarnation, to answer your original question, yes those data do look odd.  It's hard to fathom that cake, donuts, ice cream and Mars Bars would really be lower GI than brown rice and brown bread, or why white pasta comes out so low, similar to eating an egg!

 

Remember that rice and bread are never eaten on their own, but with fats and proteins, which would reduce the net GI.  So a more relevant comparison might be between ice cream or Mars Bars, and risotto or cheese sandwiches . 

 

The white pasta is still a mystery though.  I would not rely on these data as being accurate, until we know more.

 

The data is pretty accurate, it comes from an authoritative source and is pretty much identical to all the other data I have seen. If you find these values odd, it is frankly because of your limited understanding of the subject not because there is really something odd going on

 

Remember that sugar (sucrose) itself has only a medium GI of 58. This is because only half of it is glucose, the other half is fructose which hardly raises blood glucose at all (that doesn't make it any healthier, of course). Moreover, things like chocolate bars ice cream or even donuts contain loads of fat which slows down the absorption of the sugars, further lowering the GI.

 

The relatively low GI of pasta is not a mystery at all but intrinsic to its cooking properties. Have you ever tried to make pasta from soft wheat without the use of eggs? It is impossible; you can try to form pasta but it will start to fall apart as soon as you put it into the boiling water. Durum wheat has two special properties allowing to make pasta from it without the use of any binder: firstly, it has very hard and dense starch granules which take much longer to soak up water than other starches and secondly, it is very rich in protein which forms networks during the processing of the pasta and effectively traps the starch granules within a dense protein matrix. This is the reason why pasta keeps both its shape during cooking and why it provides some resistance to our digestive enzymes. Hence the GI of firm pasta cooked al dente is lower than that of soft, overcooked pasta. Parboiled rice also has a lower GI than ordinary or even brown rice for similar reasons.
 

Edited by timar, 29 July 2014 - 09:42 AM.

[Reincarnatian]

Thanks for the answer, quite interesting.

I thought it had something to do with the particle size with the specific food (rise being small, and you tend to swallow pasta in "un-chewed" pieces).

 

Edited by Michael, 10 September 2014 - 11:00 PM.

[timar]

Thanks for the answer, quite interesting.

I thought it had something to do with the particle size with the specific food (rise being small, and you tend to swallow pasta in "un-chewed" pieces).

 

That's not very likely to make a significant difference as the stomach juices and our digestive enzymes do a pretty good job in breaking apart any unchewed bits of starchy food.

 

Just look up this table and compare ordinary white rice to converted (parboiled) rice. The first has an GI of 89, the latter has an GI of 38, so it is less than half the GI only due to the parboiling process which promotes the formation of resistant starch. Freshly cooked pasta doesn't contain resistant starch as such, but the starch trapped within the protein matrix is similarly unavailable to our digestive enzymes.

 

Btw. you can even further lower the GI of pasta by cooking it very firm (just a bit too firm to eat it straigth away) and let it cool down for some hours. Then just reheat the pasta in the microwave. It will taste almost indistinguishable from freshly cooked pasta, but a significant amount of the starch will have turned to resistant starch. Voilà, here's your "low carb pasta"

 

[DAMI]

What should i do if i dont have a microwave? Is there any data how much of the starch exactly becomes resistant??

[timar]

What should i do if i dont have a microwave? Is there any data how much of the starch exactly becomes resistant??

 

Oh, it doesn't really matter how you reheat it (I just suggested microwaving because it's the most convenient method). The resistant starch forms when the pasta cools down. You will get the maximum amount by storing the pasta in the refrigerator, as more resistant starch gets formed at lower temperatures. It is hard to tell how much exactly, as it depends on a lot of factors, but from what I've seen you can expect about 5% of the cabohydrates in refrigerated pasta to turn into resistant starch. That doesn't sound like much but as resistant starch acts similar to fiber it amounts to 3 to 4 grams of additional fiber for a serving of two cups cooked pasta - which is twice the amount originally present in refined pasta.

 

[Chupo]

Just be sure to not exceed 140° F/ 60° C when reheating. Going above that will degrade the RS.

[misterE]

 

...brainwashed into thinking that white-flour will turn into blood-sugar...

 

Starch + Amylase in saliva = sugars.  White flour turns into sugars before it even hits your stomach. 

 

Are you saying this is merely a rumour?  That we are brainwashing our 9 years olds in Biology class with those starch + iodine + spittle experiments?  How are you saying starches are actually digested, if not this way?
 

 

 

Starch defiantly turns to blood-sugar. But the elevated blood-sugar in diabetics is not from the consumption of starch or even simple-sugar itself. The elevated blood-sugar in diabetics is caused by increased gluconeogenesis, brought about by elevated levels of glucocorticoids.