American Beauty Fun Facts

Fun Pasta Facts

Did you know?

Made in the USA

Difference Between Pasta and Noodles

Energy Sources

Did You Know?

The Chinese are on record as having eaten pasta as early as 5,000 B.C.
There are more than 600 pasta shapes produced worldwide.
Pasta is found in the will of Ponzio Baestone, a Genoan soldier who requested "bariscella peina de macarone" - a small basket of macaroni (Marco Polo didn't "discover" pasta).
Thomas Jefferson is credited with introducing macaroni to the United States, he fell in love with a certain dish he sampled in Naples.
The first American pasta factory was opened in Brooklyn, New York, in 1848, by a Frenchman named Antoine Zerega.
To cook one billion pounds of pasta, you would need 2,021,452,000 gallons of water - enough to fill nearly 75,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.
One billion pounds of pasta is about 212,595 miles of 16-ounce packages of spaghetti stacked end-to-end -- enough to circle the earth's equator nearly nine times.
Consumers enjoy pasta for dinner more than 40 times a year (approximately once a week).
October is National Pasta Month.
The word "pasta" comes from the Italian for paste, meaning a combination of flour and Water.
Pasta existed for thousands of years before anyone ever thought to put tomato sauce on it. The Spanish explorer Cortez brought tomatoes back to Europe from Mexico in 1519.
Cooked al dente (al-DEN-tay) literally means "to the tooth".
One cup cooked spaghetti provides about 200 calories, 40 grams of carbohydrates, less than one gram of total fat, no cholesterol and only one gram of sodium.

Made in the U. S. A.

Pasta made in the United States is the finest in the world. Here's why:

Strict production standards assure uniform size, shape, and quality that you can count on time after time.
By law, enriched macaroni and noodle products must contain added vitamins and minerals: thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, and iron.
America's heartland is the world's best source for high quality Durum Wheat from which semolina, the primary ingredient in pasta, is made.

What's the Difference Between Pasta and Noodles?

There are two basic forms of pasta - macaroni and noodles. Macaroni products are made from semolina and water. Noodles are made from Durum flour (a more finely ground form of semolina), water and, by Federal regulation, egg solids. So, without the egg solids, a pasta product can't be identified as a noodle. Because people often equate eggs with cholesterol, noodles are sometimes mistakenly singled out as a less healthy pasta choice. Yet one two-ounce serving of uncooked noodles, or the equivalent of one and one-quarter cups of cooked noodles, contains 70 milligrams of cholesterol - 23 percent of the U.S. Government recommended Daily Value. Some noodle-shaped pastas are "Yolk-Free" and contain only egg whites and are cholesterol-free.

Energy Sources

A person's fitness level determines the amount of fat, carbohydrate and protein the muscles will use as fuel while at rest and during exercise. The fuel used by muscles will depend on the intensity and duration of the exercise. As activity levels change, the body uses different mixtures of fuels.

At rest, people get about 10 percent of their energy from protein, about 40 percent from fat, and about 50 percent from carbohydrate.
In moderate intensity activities, such as jogging or aerobic dance, the energy source is an even mix of fat and carbohydrate. Training alters the fuel mix with a shift to more use of fat.
At high intensity exercise, including running, swimming, or cycling, carbohydrate is the major fuel. Fat and protein still contribute to total energy.
In long-duration activities, such as marathons, or triathlons, the length of time a person can exercise depends upon the amount of carbohydrate stored in the muscles and liver. This carbohydrate is known as glycogen.