Pasta.... dry or cooked

[MELJP]

Hi, I'm new to all this but wondering if someone can give guidance on the subject of pasta. I've read on the packet that the carbohydrate content of the pasta is 31.6g per 100g. I take it that is the carb content of the uncooked pasta. I've worked out how much my daily carb intake should be. However, is my intake based on the dry uncooked weight of pasta or the cooked weight ie when it's absorbed the water and is swollen. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[peggy]

This is from the pasta I had tonight (tortollini) so the one I had is 31grams carbs pee 100g cooked pasta.

 

[helli]

Usually, the nutritional information for pasta is given uncooked.
Cooking will change the percentage of carbs but as this is by absorbing water (which contains no carbs), 100g of uncooked pasta will result in 31.6g carbs once cooked. So it should not affect your total carbs consumed.

 

[Martin.A]

Usually, the nutritional information for pasta is given uncooked.
Cooking will change the percentage of carbs but as this is by absorbing water (which contains no carbs), 100g of uncooked pasta will result in 31.6g carbs once cooked. So it should not affect your total carbs consumed.

Meaning that if you want a 100g portion on your plate you need to work backwards and measure out the amount of dry pasta that would give you that portion size?

 

[MELJP]

Thanks to everyone who has helped. It's made it clearer now in my own mind. Just had a thought... does the texture of the cooked pasta have an impact of the absorption rate eg does el dente take longer or slower to absorb than say over cooked ?

 

[helli]

Meaning that if you want a 100g portion on your plate you need to work backwards and measure out the amount of dry pasta that would give you that portion size?

No.
I meant if I weighed 100g of dried pasta which contains 31.6g carbs. Then I cook it. It still contains 31.6g carbs even though it now weighs more.
I thought the question was how many carbs will it contain after cooking. The answer is to weigh it before cooking.
I know that (as someone with Type 1), I weigh 100g pasta before cooking for a pasta based meal.

I am not sure you could easily work backwards because it depends how much water is absorbed which probably depends upon things like the type of pasta and how long it has been cooked. Maybe you could weight the water before and after and work out approximately how much water has been absorbed?

 

[Inka]

Hi, I'm new to all this but wondering if someone can give guidance on the subject of pasta. I've read on the packet that the carbohydrate content of the pasta is 31.6g per 100g. I take it that is the carb content of the uncooked pasta. I've worked out how much my daily carb intake should be. However, is my intake based on the dry uncooked weight of pasta or the cooked weight ie when it's absorbed the water and is swollen. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

It depends what kind of pasta it is but if it’s normal wheat pasta that sounds like the cooked weight - ie cook the pasta and 100g of that cooked pasta (drained obviously) gives you 31.6g carbs.

Pasta carbs are usually listed in raw uncooked weight and I find that easier. If, for example, you had a bag of wheat pasta that said there were 70g carbs in 100g raw weight but you only wanted 35g carbs for your meal, you’d just weigh out 50g of raw pasta and cook it (50g raw pasta containing 35g carbs according to my example). In this case, it wouldn’t matter how much it weighed cooked as you’d already have ascertained the carbs by weighing it raw.

If you’re just at risk of diabetes, it doesn’t matter if your carb counting is a bit out. It’s only if you’re on insulin that accurate calculations matter.

 

[Martin.A]

Thanks to everyone who has helped. It's made it clearer now in my own mind. Just had a thought... does the texture of the cooked pasta have an impact of the absorption rate eg does el dente take longer or slower to absorb than say over cooked ?

No sure about that but cooking, cooling and then reheating pasta has shown that it turns some of the starch into 'resistant starch', which isn't digested (see below).

Carbohydrates and diabetes: What you need to know

For many of us carbohydrates are a key source of energy. Carbohydrate-containing foods also provide important nutrients for good health. All the carbohydrates you eat and drink are broken down into glucose. The type, and amount, you consume can make a difference to your blood glucose levels and...

www.diabetes.org.uk

 

[Proud to be erratic]

@MELJP, I never seem to get a satisfactory outcome after I've had fresh pasta or dry pasta from a packet. I'm insulin dependent and my CGM habitually tells me I under or over dosed! The added water for the cooking also extracts some of the starch naturally in the pasta and I guess it also depends how much of that starchy water gets added to one's plate; depends which TV chef I last saw preparing pasta.

If the pasta is in something like lasagne, the addition of the meat or veg sauce has a diluting effect on the overall carb count (which helps) but the high fat content of that particular meal alters my rate of digestion and so I'm still not getting a great outcome. Its only when the pasta is in a ready made meal such as tortelloni/tortellini (different spelling on different packaging!) that I find the nutrition data gives me a carb value that works reasonably well.

However, all that said, a pasta meal is inevitably a high carb meal and perhaps less than ideal for someone at risk of diabetes. At this stage you might be looking for easy changes in your food choices to "warp" you into a newish way of life that is easy to sustain in the long term and thus keep you no more than at risk of D. Unless testing with finger pricks reassures you that pasta is a food item your body handles well without a consequent BG spike - in which case great (and counting pasta carbs is not so important).

 

[SB2015]

For pasta I opt for Black Bean spaghetti or Edamame pasts. Only 14g carbs per 100 g (dried weight)
And just as good as a carrier for a nice bolognaise.

I had not thought about the starch that is left in the cooking water. With a lower carb amount with other pastas, I then use less insulin so any error due to loss to the water is smaller

 

[Leadinglights]

For pasta I opt for Black Bean spaghetti or Edamame pasts. Only 14g carbs per 100 g (dried weight)
And just as good as a carrier for a nice bolognaise.

I had not thought about the starch that is left in the cooking water. With a lower carb amount with other pastas, I then use less insulin so any error due to loss to the water is smaller

Even with those the water you pour away to drain it looks quite 'starchy', I have found them a good alternative to wheat pasta.

 

[Browser]

I use wholemeal pasta. I cook a batch till fairly al dente, and bag portions of 120gms. I then freeze it it and use as required, boiling it for a couple of minutes. I don’t know the science of it, but, apparently, the freezing and reheating process reduces the carbs, through resistant starch. Works for me.

 

[MELJP]

thanks for taking the time to respond. I'll try it out for sure. It'll save time doing it in batches as well.