Many diets are recommending low carbs these days. If a person is pre diabetic, or even diabetic, they also are told to eat low carbs or at least avoid refined carbs. But are carbs truly as terrible as we are told? I would say that it depends on one’s condition of health. But in general, I am a believer in moderation. If someone who is prediabetic wants a meal of pasta occasionally, should they eat it? Well, there are actually a few hacks to make eating pasta safer . If you want pasta, choose a good quality made from semolina wheat, preferably organic and preferably made in Italy as the quality of wheat will be better. Then cook the pasta al dente. do not over cook it as over cooking refined carbs brings out too much starch which then causes insulsin to spike quickly. Secondly, drain and rinse it well to remove even more starch. And thirdly, serve it in small portions like the Italians do. But even more than that, if you want to avoid glucose spikes in general, from any carbs, here is an interesting hack. Do not eat your carbs or sugars at the start of your meal. Begin your meal with a salad or any type of raw or cooked vegetables. Then you could have a soup if you like or just go to the next portion of the meal: protein and healthy fats (ie. eggs, some meat, even beans, avocado etc.). After all that, eat your pasta but in small portions. If you do it that way, it will not cause so much of an insulin spike and it will be in general better for glucose levels in the blood. This is true for all carbs actually.
Even for breakfast, it is beneficial to have some vegetables and then protein and then some carbs like toast or oats etc.
So you can still have your carbs but in moderation and served the correct way.