I ate pasta in America and Italy while wearing a blood sugar monitor – the different effects it had on my body scared me

As an Italian-American, my fondest memories are of coming home from school and my mother cooking a huge pot of spaghetti and homemade garlic bread, or getting take-out pizza as a family on a Friday night.

But as much as I love pasta and a slice, they don’t exactly love me. As I got older, I increasingly found myself feeling bloated and tired for hours after meals.

Like many Americans, I had heard stories about Americans traveling to Europe and being able to eat anything without feeling bloated like they did at home.

So you can imagine my excitement as I prepared for my honeymoon last month in Italy, the mecca for carb lovers like me.

I decided that the trip would be a perfect time to test for myself whether anything physiologically different actually happened when I ate my favorite dishes there than at home.

I wore a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), a device inserted under the skin that monitors the amount of sugar in your blood.

Large peaks and valleys are often responsible for the fatigue, dehydration and other negative symptoms people feel after excessive consumption.

I recorded my results a week before my trip and then during the first week of my honeymoon and the results were, quite frankly, startling.

I used a device called Stelo that is injected into the arm with a small needle and left there for weeks.

It measures the amount of glucose in the interstitial fluid, a body fluid that surrounds cells and tissues.

According to the company, a normal blood glucose level for a non-diabetic is 70 to 140 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter of blood).

Every time my levels spiked or exceeded this threshold, I would get a notification on my phone and a notification would pop up asking me to explain what I was doing and eating around that time.

During the first half of the experiment, I noticed constant spikes after eating, especially if pasta or rice was part of the meal – which was often the case.

White, brown and yellow rice were constantly in my dishes at mealtime because they are versatile and require relatively little effort or time.

But within 30 minutes of eating, Stelo warned me that my blood sugar level would go from 80 mg/dl to about 130 in just a few minutes, gradually rising above the normal range.

The same went for 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 luck of not having to plan a wedding anymore, but during my first week in Rome my blood sugar never spiked after lunch or dinner.

Whether it was a bowl of carbonara at a restaurant, or a trapizzino (an Italian pizza pocket) or gelato from a street vendor, my levels remained stable.

And the bloating and fatigue I normally get at home never occurs.

Even the five-course meal we made during a cooking class, consisting of three separate pasta dishes, didn’t trigger high glucose alerts.

Experts believe the ultra-processed nature of American foods versus European products may play a role.

For example, a box of Barilla Spaghetti in the US contains the additives niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin and folic acid, plus wheat flour semolina.

Many of these ingredients that extended the shelf life of foods have been linked to blood sugar problems and diabetes.

Italian pasta, on the other hand, is usually made with just semolina, wheat flour and water, omitting the preservatives.

And science suggests that the lack of processed foods could have real benefits.

A 2022 study The magazine for nutritionFor example, found pasta that has been less processed tends to digest more slowly, slowing the rate at which glucose enters the bloodstream.

Italians also follow the tradition of cooking pasta ‘al dente’, which translates to ‘to the tooth’. This means it has a firmer texture, which makes it more difficult to chew, slowing down digestion.

Amie Alexander, a registered dietitian at Nutri-peak in Australia, DailyMail.com said portion sizes also tend to be smaller, with Italians eating several small courses at a time. Pasta is usually the starter (primo), followed by meat or fish (secondi) and dessert.

She said: ‘Meals are also combined with other nutrient-dense foods such as vegetables, which can further blunt blood sugar responses.’

Pizza also has important differences, Dr. Daniel Atkinson, Clinical Lead at Treated.com, told DailyMail.com.

He said: often made Neopolitan style, with a thin crust and minimal toppings in addition to fresh tomato sauce and mozzarella.

‘The dough used is usually free of fat and sugar, so overall, eating pizza in Italy may add fewer calories to your daily intake than you think.

‘Most pizzas will cause a rise in blood sugar levels in some way, but the thinner crust of Italian pizza means it will generally have a lower glycemic index compared to American versions.’

But in the US, many restaurants use sugar in their dough and sauces to improve the taste.

‘This added sugar in American pizza could theoretically partly explain why blood sugar spikes may be more severe compared to those in Italy,’ Dr Atkinson added.

Experts also told me that my increased steps could play a role: I averaged 15,000 steps a day and was constantly on my feet, compared to about 5,000-7,000 on a normal day in the United States.

Walking after a meal has been consistently shown to help digest food more quickly and move gas flow more easily through the digestive system, preventing bloating.

A 2022 study even found that a two-minute walk after eating helps lower blood sugar levels because muscles absorb extra glucose into the bloodstream.

Ms Alexander told DailyMail.com: ‘Physical activity such as walking after meals increases the muscles’ efficiency in absorbing glucose, thereby lowering blood sugar levels.

‘Walking is very much embedded in everyday life in many European cities, which can really have a big impact on digestive and metabolic health.’

I wasn’t completely immune to blood sugar spikes in Italy; I did get them after breakfast.

I’m not normally a breakfast person. I usually arrive late and only have time for a few hard-boiled eggs or a toasted waffle.

But in Rome, Florence and Venice I made sure to enjoy the continental breakfast, which usually consisted of a combination of pastries, yoghurt, eggs, vegetables and cappuccino.

It’s possible that I started experiencing spikes around this time because my body isn’t used to eating breakfast and I opted for high sugar options.

At the end of my trip to Italy, my average glucose level 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 indulging in my favorite foods in Italy, and I’ll definitely be checking ingredient lists more often in the US.

I think I’ll also take an after-dinner walk when we eat Italian at home.