Inspiration for new pasta comes from the heart
Scientists in Italy have developed a new type of pasta that can help ward off heart attacks.
While dietitians might frown on people gorging on spaghetti carbonara or creamy linguine, the new pasta is being touted as beneficial to wellbeing. It is made from a mixture of standard durum wheat flour mixed with wholegrain barley flour, which is rich in a fibre called betaglucan that aids the growth of new blood vessels.
These blood vessels form “natural bypasses” in the event of a heart attack, according to the researchers in Pisa.
Scientists tested their theory on laboratory mice. Those fed the barley pasta survived an induced cardiac arrest in greater numbers than a control group.
The barley- fed mice also had less heart damage. The researchers, from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, revealed the results on the website Scientific Reports. They said the new pasta “makes the body more resistant to stress and to coronary artery disease”.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show that a sustained dietary intake of pasta enriched with [ beta- glucan] safely increases coronary collaterals . . . and reduces mortality,” said Professor Vincenzo Lionetti. Pokemon California’s insurance commissioner says preliminary estimates of losses from the state’s recent siege of wildfires exceed US$ 1 billion ($ 1.42b) and that the figure is expected to rise. Commissioner Dave Jones told reporters in Los Angeles yesterday that the estimate comes from the eight largest insurers in the affected areas. Authorities say nearly 7000 homes and structures were destroyed in Northern California’s wildfires.