As an Italian-American, my fondest memories are coming home from school and my mother cooking a huge pot of spaghetti and homemade garlic bread, or ordering takeout pizza as a family on Friday nights.
But as much as I love pasta and a slice, they don’t exactly love me. As I’ve gotten older, they left me increasingly bloated and fatigued for hours after meals.
Like many Americans, I had heard stories about Americans who traveled to Europe and could eat anything without bloating like they would at home.
So you can imagine my excitement as I prepared for my honeymoon in Italy last month, the Mecca for carb lovers like me.
I decided the trip would be the perfect time to see for myself if anything was really different, physiologically, when I ate my favorite dishes there and at home.
He was wearing a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), a device inserted under the skin that monitors the amount of sugar in the blood.
Large spikes and dips are often responsible for the tiredness, dehydration, and other negative symptoms people feel after consuming too much.
I tracked my results for a week before my trip and then for the first week of my honeymoon and, frankly, the results were amazing.
Like many Americans, I had been told that pasta and pizza in Italy would make me feel less bloated and fatigued than in the United States. I used my Italian honeymoon to test this theory.
On the left is a typical pasta dish that I prepare at home in New York. On the right is one of the best pastas I ate during my trip to Italy. Despite its decline, my blood sugar never increased
I used a device called Stelo that is injected into the arm with a small needle and stays there for weeks.
It measures the amount of glucose in interstitial fluid, a body fluid that surrounds cells and tissues.
According to the company, a normal blood glucose level for a non-diabetic person is 70 to 140 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter of blood).
Every time my levels increased or exceeded this threshold, I would receive a notification on my phone and a message would appear asking me to explain what I was doing and eating at that moment.
During the first half of the experiment, I consistently noticed spikes after dinner, especially if pasta or rice was part of the meal, which was often.
White, brown, and yellow rice were constantly on my dinner plates because they are versatile and require relatively little effort or time.
But within 30 minutes of eating, Stelo alerted me that my blood sugar would go from 80 mg/dl to about 130 in just a few minutes, gradually rising above the normal range.
The same thing happened with the pasta, which I tried to combine with vegetables and light sauces to make it healthier.
Maybe it was the food, or maybe it was the joy of not having to plan a wedding, but my blood sugar never went up after lunch or dinner during my first week in Rome.
Whether it was a plate of carbonara at a restaurant, a trapizzino (a pocket Italian pizza) or ice cream from a street vendor, my levels remained stable.
And the bloating and fatigue I normally feel at home never showed up.
Even after a fair amount of pizza and ice cream in Rome (left) and Florence (right), I didn’t have any blood sugar spikes. However, walking up to 15,000 steps a day could have helped lower my levels.
My blood sugar rose steadily after eating food in the US (on the left), but never rose after lunch or dinner in Italy (on the right)
Even the five-course meal we made during a cooking class, which included three separate pasta dishes, didn’t trigger any high glucose alerts.
Experts believe the ultra-processed nature of American foods compared to European products may play a role.
A box of Barilla Spaghetti in the United States, for example, contains the additives niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin and folic acid, as well as semolina wheat flour.
Many of these ingredients that used to make foods last longer have been linked to blood sugar problems and diabetes.
Italian pasta, for its part, is usually made only with wheat flour semolina and water, without preservatives.
And science suggests that a lack of processed foods could have real benefits.
A 2022 study in The nutrition magazineFor example, he found that less processed pasta tends to be digested more slowly, slowing the rate at which glucose enters the blood.
Italians also follow the tradition of cooking pasta “al dente”, which translates as “to the tooth.” This means it has a firmer texture and requires more effort to chew, which slows down digestion.
Amie Alexander, registered dietitian at Nutritional Peak in Australia, told DailyMail.com that portion sizes also tend to be smaller, with Italians eating several small plates at a time. Pasta is usually the first course (primo), followed by meat or fish (second) and dessert.
She said: “The meals are also combined with other nutrient-rich foods, such as vegetables, which can further mitigate blood sugar responses.”
Pizza also has important differences, Dr Daniel Atkinson, chief clinical officer at Treated.com, told DailyMail.com.
He said: It is often made Neapolitan style, with a thin crust and minimal toppings beyond fresh tomato sauce and mozzarella.
«The dough used does not usually contain fat or sugar, so, in general, eating pizza in Italy can mean adding fewer calories to your daily intake than you think.
“Most pizzas will cause some type of blood sugar spike, but the thinner crust of Italian pizza means it is more than likely to have a lower glycemic index compared to American versions.”
But in the United States, many restaurants use sugar in dough and sauces to help enhance the flavor.
“This added sugar in American pizza could, in theory, partly explain why blood sugar spikes may be more severe compared to those experienced in Italy,” Dr. Atkinson added.
Experts also told me that increasing my steps could play a role: I averaged 15,000 steps a day and was on my feet constantly compared to about 5,000 to 7,000 on a typical day in the United States.
Walking after a meal has consistently been shown to help food be digested more quickly and gas move more easily through the digestive system, preventing bloating.
One study 2022 He even found that a two-minute walk after eating helps lower blood sugar levels because the muscles will absorb excess glucose into the bloodstream.
Ms Alexander told DailyMail.com: ‘Physical activity, such as walking after meals, increases the efficiency of muscles in absorbing glucose, thereby lowering blood sugar.
“Walking is very ingrained in daily life in many European cities, which can really have a big impact on digestion and metabolic health.”
The above is a spike glucose notification I received after breakfast one morning in Italy. He would constantly have spikes around this time, which could be because he was eating more food than normal.
Alcohol has also been shown to increase blood sugar, as sweet mixed drinks may contain carbohydrates. However, these spritzes in Venice made me feel refreshed.
I wasn’t completely immune to blood sugar spikes while in Italy; I suffered them after breakfast.
Normally I’m not a big fan of breakfast. I’m usually late and only have time for a couple of hard-boiled eggs or a toasted waffle.
But in Rome, Florence and Venice I made sure to savor the continental breakfasts, which usually included a combination of pastries, yogurt, eggs, vegetables and cappuccino.
I may have been experiencing spikes around this time as my body is not used to eating breakfast and I was choosing high sugar options.
At the end of my trip to Italy, my average glucose was 101 mg/dL and I spent 96 percent of the time within the target range.
Although I had fewer spikes overall, I spent about the same amount of time in the target range.
I’m amazed at how energetic and healthy I felt even while savoring my favorite foods in Italy, and I’ll definitely be checking ingredient lists in the US more often.
I think I’ll also incorporate a walk after dinner whenever we eat Italian food at home.