
A great way to help keep your food budget in check in this time of soaring prices at the grocery store is to shop your pantry and use what you already have on hand. This series of articles will help you do exactly that by providing tasty, nutritious serving suggestions for some inexpensive shelf-stable staples in your pantry that you may have overlooked. This month’s focus: pasta.
Is Pasta Healthy?
Good news, carb lovers, pasta is not the nutritional villain that many people believe it to be. In fact, research published in 2020 in Frontiers in Nutrition revealed that pasta consumption is associated with better diet quality and higher intake of a few key nutrients — folate, iron, magnesium, and fiber — compared with diets lacking noodles. Interestingly, pasta consumption in adult females was associated with reduced waist circumference and body weight (no such results were found in adult males or children).
Those benefits are easy to enjoy because pasta is one of the most versatile pantry staples. It comes in dozens of different shapes, from bow ties to linguine, can be served hot or cold, and pairs well with just about anything. Plus, it’s as easy to make as boiling water. While traditionalists may prefer fresh pasta, research has found no significant nutritional differences between fresh and dried, and the latter will last much longer — up to two years, according to FoodSafety.gov.