Reheated Pasta is Better
If you are like me, you love pasta. . . . in all its forms and shapes. But, eating pasta ramps up your blood sugar, and often adds inches to the waistline. What to do???
I recently read a very interesting article that claimed if you love pasta, cook it a day in advance, let it cool in the fridge overnight, then reheat it for you meal the second day. Really! Click on this link to find out more.
I have Type 2 diabetes, so if this report is actually true, I won’t mind letting my pasta get cold before reheating it to eat if doing so increases the levels of resistance starches.
It’s an interesting article. In fact, it makes meal prep easier! If I want pasta on Saturday, I’ll cook it on Friday, then reheat to eat on Saturday. As we all know, reheating take a lot less time that the original cooking did! Making fresh pasta takes time. You can reheat by microwave, or just dunk it in hot water, and viola! You have great pasta, minus some of the bad stuff.
And for those that didn’t know, NEVER rinse your pasta! Rinsed pasta doesn’t ‘hold’ the sauce – it just slides off. The stickiness helps hold the sauce on the noodles, making it taste better, and look better. Skip adding oil, too, same results. Bon apetito!
And if you love rice, cooking it first, chilling it for 12 hours, then reheating it, can also actually be healthier for you. It’s the same for potatoes.
This discovery happened because I got an add for a new type of rice cooker ($165) that increased the level of resistant starches. I thought, if this fancy rice cooker did it, how else can I achieve that goal, without shelling out $165! That led me to this article. With the rice, add 3% oil. The researcher used coconut oil, but there are other oils that will give similar results, like sunflower, or even corn oil. The key to success, just like with pasta, is to cook it, cool it, then reheat to eat.
Since reading both of these articles, I did some additional research. It turns out it’s not a myth. I found references to this method, and the advantages, on diabetes websites, health sites, and even on the diabetes health section of John Hopkins. Cooling down, then reheating, carbohydrates causes a chemical reaction that changes the sugars.
Let me know if you found this interesting.