Making a spaghetti dish is quick, easy, and cost-effective and the sauces we put on it can be healthy — if you pick the right one. You’d be surprised to find what is actually in some of these sauces. By choosing the wrong sauce, you’ll be adding on tons of fat and calories to your diet that you don’t need. 

Motor Yacht (Quality Carrier):
This Week’s Example: Amy’s Organic Low Sodium Marinara

• What’s on Board? This healthier choice contains all-natural ingredients that include extra-virgin olive oil and organic produce. This is a great pick because the amount of fat and calories is half that of our other choices. The sodium content is much lower as well. There are actual chunks of tomatoes and onions in this sauce, rather than merely processed versions found in the others.  

Row Boat (Empty Carrier):
This Week’s Example: Ragu’s Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce

• What’s on Board? This is a more highly processed sauce. Tomato puree, a mixture of water and tomato paste, is used rather than whole tomatoes. Tomato paste comes from removing the skin and seeds from ripened tomatoes. Too bad, since tomato skin is where you find the antioxidants lycopene. Much of the nutritional value is all in the skin of the tomato. There’s also vegetable oil in this sauce, which adds higher amounts of unhealthy fats than olive oil. Another highly-processed ingredient is high-maltose corn syrup, a processed sugar that's not as sweet as high-fructose corn syrup and may not be as bad for your waistline as HFCS—we can’t figure out what that is doing in the jar.    

Garbage Barge (Pollutant Carrier): These foods can do you more harm than good because they can carry chemicals and preservatives.
This Week’s Example: Classico’s Traditional Basil Pesto

• What’s on Board? A huge amount of fat and sodium. Beware—one type of fat within this sauce comes from the worst type of fat: partially hydrogenated oils (a.k.a. trans fats). Hydrogenation converts healthy unsaturated fats to nasty trans fats for the sake of improving a product’s shelf life. Even though this product contains heart-healthy olive oil, it does not outweigh the large amount of trans fat that’s not listed on the label. Beyond our fat concerns, this is also the most highly processed sauce and highest in fat, calories, and sodium.

   

For more information on The Carrier Method for supplying food and nutrients to the body, take a look at Chris Carmichael's Food for Fitness, a great resource for anyone who is trying to maximize their energy levels and improve their overall health.