Pasta - how to make this family favourite more healthy
Love your pasta n sauce? Or maybe you have kids that do! Check this Breakfast interview out….
A big topic for a small time frame so some extra notes as always to help.
SODIUM (Salt)
Upper level for an adult is 2000mg sodium/day (equates to approx. 5g salt/not quite a tsp of salt (6g is 1tsp), to reduce risk of chronic disease <1600mg (4g).
For kids, the upper level is less!!!! <1000mg/day for the little ones is the upper level.
You only NEED a very small amount of sodium to survive so don’t think you need to add a bit of salt to be healthy.
PASTA
Dried plain pasta is lower in sodium than fresh plain pasta.
A serving size for most people of 60-80g dried is a good amount, about ¾ - 1 cup cooked (for busy/hungry teenagers/super active people it's obviously ok to have more).
If you are in need of a GF pasta, go for the buckwheat or quinoa ones or pulse ones (edamame bean, black bean etc) as they are MUCH higher in fibre compared to the white corn/rice GF pasta.
Fresh filled pasta - the highest we found was 810mg and lowest 499mg in ½ packet so it really pays to check before you buy.