THE SLATTERY SCUTTLEBUTT

OUR NOVEMBER 2025 NEWSLETTER

UNCLE GIUSEPPE’s NOVEMBER ROSE EVENT  11/8/25

A big thank you to Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace in Morris Plains for allowing us to park two tables of Marine Corps League members at their entryways for our rose “sale.” I am also grateful for the fantastic company of those who participated in the Rose Event–especially the community of shoppers who were so generous with their donations. We were able to raise over $1400 which will all go to helping veterans in need.

For those of you who haven’t spent a few hours manning the table or coordinating handing out roses while collecting donations, the rose sale is so much more than that.  Give it a try for a few hours, it is worth the little effort that it takes.  It is a time to get to know your fellow Marines and Associate members as well as the variety of folks that take the time to ask you questions or tell you why they are happy to support your cause.  I was lucky to learn more about Dave Katz, Doc Campbell, Ed Malicki, Mike Dougherty, Tom Iller, Tony Fiorentino, and Steve Ferman from the stories they told but more so how they got others passing by to stop and talk.  Oh, and yes, every Marine was offered a membership application.

I am grateful for the group of folks in our detachment and look forward to getting to know more of our members!

Veterans Valor – Healing Garden

Veterans Valor of New Jersey supports veterans and their families by creating Healing Gardens that transform war scars into spaces of peace, reflection, and community healing through nature and compassion.

Partnering with Morristown Rotary and local groups, Veterans Valor promotes recovery, unity, and awareness, symbolizing veterans’ journeys from sacrifice to renewal through meaningful, accessible, and restorative environments.

The Veterans Valor Healing Garden is a dedicated space at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morris Township, New Jersey, designed to honor veterans and support their families. The garden serves as a sanctuary for peace, reflection, and spiritual renewal, offering a place for veterans to cope with the challenges they face after service. It is part of the Disarm PTSD campaign, which aims to transform service-related trauma into a source of purpose and connection. The garden includes seven themed areas, each reflecting different stages of trauma, recovery, remembrance, and renewal. The Healing Garden is a collaborative initiative involving the Morris County Park Commission, Rotary District 7475, and local health and veterans’ groups, aiming to create significant benefits for veterans and the community at large. The Slattery Detachment is proud to have Tom Miller work as an artistic consultant during the designing phase of the space at the Arboretum.

On November 13th, the ground-breaking ceremony took place at dusk.  The Slattery Detachment of the MCL was represented by Jim Koons, Tom Miller, and Tony Fiorentino.  The VFW and the American Legion also had several members in attendance.

MARINE CORPS 250th BIRTHDAY Celebration

WELLNESS & BETTER LIVING

Your editor is in the medical field; you should expect to get some free advice that may make you feel better and have more energy to spend on detachment activities! Here is an article from WebMD–the credit is all theirs.  It is worth reading and considering some small lifestyle changes–for your own good.

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Why leftover pasta may be healthier than carb-loading with freshly made pasta.

Is Pasta Actually Healthier As a Leftover?

You’re eating at your favorite Italian restaurant and enjoying a plate of spaghetti that’s bigger than most newborns. While finishing the entire meal may be tempting, it would probably result in a deeply unpleasant tummy ache. Instead of pushing the limits of your stomach, you should probably ask for a to-go box to save the leftovers for dinner the next night. But what if we told you that leftover pasta is actually healthier for you than a freshly cooked plate? This isn’t some lie created by pasta manufacturers in order to sell more ravioli. Rather, it all has to do with the pasta undergoing changes on a molecular level while it cools overnight.

Yes, leftover pasta can be better for you because the process of cooking, chilling, and reheating converts some of its starch into resistant starch, which acts more like fiber. This can lead to a smaller blood sugar spike and improved gut health, though the calorie content remains similar.

How it works 

• Retrogradation: When cooked pasta is cooled, the starch molecules reorganize into a more structured, “resistant” form.
• Resistant starch: This type of starch is not easily digested in the small intestine, so it bypasses it and moves to the large intestine where it acts as a prebiotic to feed beneficial gut bacteria.
• Lower blood sugar impact: Because it resists digestion, it has a lower glycemic impact, meaning it causes a smaller rise in blood sugar compared to freshly cooked pasta.
• Reheating benefits: The blood sugar-lowering effect persists even after the pasta is reheated.

What Happens to Pasta as It Cools?

When you cook pasta, the starch molecules become more widely spread out. This makes them much easier to digest once eaten, which means the sugars and calories are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream. But if you take a bowl of cooked pasta and leave it in the fridge overnight to cool, the starch molecules clump together and transform into resistant starches. This is a process called retrogradation, and it happens to cooked pasta as well as other similar starchy foods like rice and potatoes.

Regular Starches vs. Resistant Starches

Overconsuming the regular starches found in most bowls of freshly cooked pasta leads to weight gain, an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other similar ailments. But there’s another type of complex carbohydrate that’s actually better for you — resistant starches. Regular starches easily break down in the small intestine and are converted into sugars that are then released into the bloodstream. But resistant starches make their way through the small intestine all the way to the large intestine, where they finally ferment and help nourish that “good” gut bacteria. Some foods that contain high amounts of resistant starches include oats, beans, and yes, leftover pasta.

The Benefits of Resistant Starches

Resistant starches provide a wide variety of nutritional benefits that are lacking in other types of common starches. The fermentation of resistant starches in the large intestine helps nourish healthy gut bacteria, which promotes better digestion and gut health. It’s also believed that eating resistant starches helps you feel fuller for longer given that the food takes more time to digest, especially if you consume more than 25 grams. Resistant starches are also tied to lower cholesterol levels, are thought to lessen inflammation, and contain high amounts of necessary fibers that lessen the risk of various heart conditions and cancers. Dishes that contain resistant starch also only contain 2.5 calories per gram, which is lower than the four calories per gram found in regular starches.

Feel Free to Reheat

Let the pasta sit for at least 24 hours or so before enjoying your leftovers, as that allows enough time for resistant starches to properly form. Once it’s time to eat, you don’t have to settle for eating the pasta cold. You can heat up the pasta in the microwave or on the stove without compromising the resistant starches that have recently formed, as they’ll still be present even after reheating. Also don’t leave your leftover pasta sitting there for too long, as it’s best enjoyed for up to five days after cooking before it possibly goes bad.

Important considerations 

• Calorie content: Reheating does not significantly lower the number of calories in the pasta.
• Moderation is key: The benefits are most pronounced when consuming a moderate portion.
• Gut health: The resistant starch feeds good bacteria in the gut, which is linked to benefits like lower cholesterol and reduced inflammation.
• Similar to other starches: This effect is not limited to pasta and can also be observed in other starchy foods like potatoes and rice.

Simply put, the benefits of retrogradation are nowhere near as potent as just eating more fiber. Look at retrogradation and resistant starch as a way to add some nutritional benefit back to beloved foods that we sometimes think of as no-no’s, or things we want to avoid if trying to control blood sugar.

SOURCES:   

• Staff Writer, Bennett Kleinman, https://betterreport.com/
• https://hopkinsdiabetesinfo.org/
• Retrogradation (Starch) – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
• The Secret Superpower of Leftover Pasta

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER:

This website and/or newsletters do not provide medical advice.  Consult your licensed medical practitioner as this site is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

If you think that you have a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room immediately.

DECEMBER

JANUARY

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