Despite Recent Research, Pasta Is Not a Magic Weight Loss Product.
If there’s research that shows pasta in a good light, it’s hard to ignore. Everyone loves pasta, right? I do. Chances are you, too. Barilla , the pasta maker, is definitely in love.
Headlines : ” Pasta May Help You Lose Weight”, Analysis Results (USA Today), ” Eating Pasta is Linked to Weight Loss” in New Study (Newsweek)
History : “I think the context is somewhat lost,” said John Sivenpiper, one of the authors of the new study , when I asked him what he thought of headlines like the ones above. This study actually showed that small servings of pasta in the context of a low glycemic index diet were not associated with weight gain. “We think we can generalize to other healthy eating models, but this is not ‘you can consume as much pasta as you want in any dietary regime and expect to see these benefits,’” he says.
The study was not a new experiment, but an analysis of previously published research. The authors were unable to find studies that tested the effects of pasta alone on weight loss, but there have been studies of low glycemic index diets that included pasta.
(The glycemic index measures how rapidly your blood sugar rises as a result of certain carbohydrate-rich foods. The GI of cornflakes is 81; instant mashed potatoes are 87. Pasta is less than you might expect: 49, according to this list .)
Pasta consumed in tiny servings over the course of a week (half a cup, thrice) alone does not ruin a low GI diet. This is what the new analysis has shown, and this news should not surprise anyone. I asked Sievenpiper if such research on any food item has ever led to the conclusion that there is food that negates the effects of a healthy diet. He couldn’t think of any examples.
Why are there headlines about research that isn’t really news?
In all fairness, every time a study is published in a scientific journal, there has probably been a news event. This was part of Canada’s efforts to analyze the role of certain foods in healthy eating, and Sivenpiper said his team has done similar studies on nuts and legumes (beans and lentils). In particular, pasta has a bad reputation, so it was worth investigating if it has any particular effect on weight loss. Fine.
But every year there are thousands of studies that none of us hears about. (Remember when we were all in awe of this bean analysis ? Yeah, me too.) There are still a few steps between exploring and the media frenzy, and one of the most important is the press release.
In this case, the press release that most reporters saw was from St. Michael’s Hospital . Several study authors work at this hospital. It is a standard part of the news cycle for institutions (such as hospitals and universities) to notify the press when their researchers publish research that might be newsworthy. A press release is a pre-written story that some media outlets may run in their entirety, while others may use as a starting point for their own reporting .
But that’s not all. Pasta maker Barilla also “communicated” in the study, according to PR agency Edelman . She emailed me a few days before the release of the study to ask if I would like to speak with a dietitian about low-GI diets and pasta. Barilla’s name was nowhere to be found in that original letter – a pattern I’ve noticed lately when companies want to publish research that benefits their brand.
Barilla did not fund the new study, although it did provide support – mostly free pasta – for some of the trials on which the analysis was based. Sivenpiper told me that researchers and company employees keep in touch a lot, and they mentioned to the guys at Barilla that they had a new pasta study in the pipeline.
Takeaway : Tiny servings of pasta can fit into a healthy diet, but that’s not news.