I think people started regarding tasteless bland starches as healthy many decades ago, back when people were more active and food more difficult to come by.
Any concentrated energy source, even one without many vitamins and minerals such as pasta and potatoes would be of great benefit to poor and hard working people then. Most simply did not have the option of overindulgence and sitting on their butts at a computer.

However, we no longer should be looking at these foods in the same light. They contain a lot of calories for not a lot of satisfaction or nutrition as cc48510 so eloquently pointed out. I don't think I need to say that today in the industrialized world we really don't need to concern ourselves with having access to enough energy , the problem is our diets contain too much energy. Therefore, the first things we should eliminate are those foods which have the least nutritional value to the body.

We were told this should be fat, but for most people eliminating refined carbs works so much better. Fat has nutritional value beyond a simple parcel of energy; glucose (which is all pasta is) does not.