The key to enjoying pasta without completely derailing your diet? Balance small portions of carbs with an abundance of protein and vegetables. Test your willpower during Tuscany & Umbria: Rustic Beauty in the Italian Heartland.
Question: What famously carb-loving country has one of the longest life expectancies in the EU?
Answer: Italy
After the low-fat craze of the ‘80s and ‘90s, the new millennium saw the crowning of another dietary villain: carbohydrates. Suddenly, low-carb diets were the craze, and pasta was off the table, under the premise that it offered up empty calories with too few nutrients. While this belief swept much of the West (and yielded trends like the paleo diet), one country shrugged it off: Italy, the home of pasta.
Italians consumer on average 57 pounds of pasta each year—that’s more than a pound a week per person. But instead of this harming them, their diet seems to be working. Italians live into their 80s on average and National Geographic tapped Sardinia as a Blue Zone, home of one of Earth’s nine longest-lived populations. The ultimate longevity prize even goes to an Italian village, Acciaroli, where a whopping 10% of the population is over 100.
With more food scientists now arguing that there’s no need to be so fearful of carbs after all, health-conscious folk are looking to see what can be learned from pasta-loving Italy. Most attention focuses on the Italian version of the Mediterranean diet: fresh fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and olive oil. A diet with less red meat, almost no animal fats for cooking, and a paucity of processed foods yields a stark contrast with American patterns.
But does this approach translate outside of Italy? Experts think so. Recently, the New England Journal of Medicine finished a five-year study of the diet as tested on 7,000 Spanish subjects who increased their weekly intake of olive oil and nuts. They were found to have significantly lower rates of stroke and heart diseases than their countrymen who didn’t try out the diet.
If you ask an Italian, however, they’ll likely tell you that the secret isn’t what they eat or don’t eat, but what they drink. The tradition of a little bit of red wine every evening has been shown to have benefits for the heart and is even said to help decrease binge drinking. Or, in their words of an old saying, “Due dita di vino e una pedata al medico!” (A little wine chases the doctor out the door!)
Fun Facts about Italian Cuisine
- There are more than 350 varieties of pasta—and so many variations in size that there are as many as 1,500 names to remember.
- There are also more than 450 varieties of Italian cheese, or formaggi. The most popular is Parmigiano Reggiano, nicknamed the "King of Cheeses."
- Pizza can be traced back to the Ancient Greek, Roman, and Persian Empires. Long before Italians were piling on cheese and tomato, these empires cooked flat breads with loads of toppings.
- Pizza as we know it evolved in the 18th century when tomatoes were introduced to southern Italy.
- Coffee on the other hand was brought to Italy from North Africa by merchants of the Venetian Republic, and the first coffee shop in Italy was opened in Venice in 1693.
- Today, Italians typically drink cappuccino or lattes in the morning and enjoy espresso in the evenings as they believe milky beverages in the afternoon are not good for digestion.
- No matter what you are eating, Italy’s gastronomic culture revolves around a long and leisurely meal. Dishes are meant to be shared and savored—and never eaten on the go.
Discover the mouthwatering—and life-extending—cuisine of Italy during our Tuscany & Umbria: Rustic Beauty in the Italian Heartland adventure.
