> Pasta and other carbohydrate-rich foods are nowhere near as bad as sugar for children.

Sugar is as bad as it is because it's almost instantly absorbed. Plenty of carbohydrates are the same.

Fiber is what separates healthy carbs from unhealthy carbs, heck, even sugars.

An apple is healthy even though it's loaded with sugar because it's also loaded with fiber.

Apple juice is unhealthy because it's basically just the sugar.

Were I to guess, what's changed in italy is what's changed in the US. Flour has become highly refined, removing all the fiber that used to be present. This gives flour nice properties in terms of baking and pasta making, but it also removes a vital part of pasta.

> removing all the fiber

Yes this.

Also reduced vegetable intake. In many cases the fiber from vegetables can offset some refined carbs intake.

On huberman show one guest described mechanics.

Fiber wraps and gelates fast carbs, and they reach later stages of processing were good bacteria lives and feeds on carbs.

As I recall from others sources, these bacteria produce drugs too, like barbiturate. They make host happier long after meal.

The real thing in relative moderation is better for you than the for profit chemicals and food additives/substitutes/extenders, cane sugar, honey are both better for you than high fructose corn syrup, and the same applies for all those flower/grain extenders and additives. Put in food mainly for profit.

Pasta is actually a relatively low GI food, due to long starch chains. Like fiber, some of the (resistant) starch acts as food for the microbiome of the gut. There’s a theory that eating lots of resistant starch has similar benefits to high-fiber diets.

Also the fact that in one of the examples the individual simply ate no vegetables.

Being a potato guy through and through, it grinds my gears that potatoes get a bad rap.

The American Indians in South America, ate potatoes for hundreds of years, potatoes, even saved many people in Europe there’s nothing wrong with them in moderation.

They also had a much more active lifestyle (e.g. farming, hunting, physical training, etc.) that would offset carb heavy foods.

those potatoes aren't like the ones we cultivate now; similar for things like corn and bananas.

and they weren't eating half a kilo of them, deep fried, in a sitting (e.g. fish and chips or McD's french fries) for breakfast lunch and dinner

> McD's french fries

those are not potatoes.

are you solid on the inside or like hash browns?

High fructose corn syrup, is the worst, and there are many other substitutes added to food products today for profit that are worse than the real thing.

Regular pasta and pizza dough are as almost as bad as sugar. Bread might not be as bad as Nutella but is still bad. Most popular Italian food tastes good but is horrible health wise.

Not by a mile, at least for pasta. When you compare the calorie density and glycemic index of pasta with other grains or grain-derived foods, it's really not bad. The dose makes the poison.

The pasta they usually serve is the worst kind of pasta.