Hi everyone I'm Monica Reinagel, the nutrition diva here with your quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous.

And this week we're talking about pasta.

Pasta as every starving artist and starving student knows

can be the basis for an infinite variety of quick, inexpensive,

and delicious meals.

But many people worry that this

carbohydrate-rich food will send their blood sugar soaring.

Whole grain pasta might be a little bit better for you,

but let's face it, it's just not the same in fact with all the carb

awareness these days many people have given up pasta entirely but some new

research reveals an easy trick that actually reduces the amount of

carbohydrates you absorb from pasta and also significantly curbs the impact on your

blood sugar. So is pasta back on the menu?

And now, what's all this about reducing the carbs in pasta?

Well, the trick has to do with resistant starches, a special type of

carbohydrate in which the molecules form bonds which make them resistant to

digestion. In effect a resistant starch acts more like fiber than starch.

Foods that are high in resistant starch can help fill you up and keep you full

and that can help you eat fewer calories.

I talked about resistant starches in a previous episode.

Certain foods such as green bananas and papayas are rich in resistant starch.

And as I explained in that episode cooking and then cooling

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