Why Marinara sauce could be killing your diet…

I constantly hear people say that marinara sauce is healthy.  Many people think it’s fat free and super low in calories.  And while in many cases, it’s exceptionally low in fat and a GREAT choice to top your whole wheat pasta or that chicken breast, not all marinara is created equal.

 

Take these two brands, for instance.  Amy’s has a whopping 110 calories and 6 g fat for a half cup serving – and who eats only a half cup with a pasta entrée?  The label, price tag and places of purchase (often natural foods markets), would make one who wasn’t carefully reading labels think that Amy’s is the better choice.  And while Amy’s manufactures some AMAZING products, I wouldn’t be caught dead eating this product.  This Classico sauce, on the other hand has only 45 calories, so you can eat more than twice as much!

 

All of this said, I’ve literally seen marinara sauces that have many as 13 g of fat per half cup.  And I’ve seen restaurant chefs pour half a bottle of olive oil in a pot of marinara after tossing the pasta noodles hundreds of calories worth of oil.  So if you’re one of those people who orders marinara in restaurants, convinced it’s a lean choice, you may now have a glimmer that marinara sauce could actually be killing your diet!