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? asked in HealthOther - Health · 2 weeks ago

Is pasta sauce healthy for you?

Whenever I make spaghetti, I always use a good amount of tomato suace (usually prego or barilla). Is this healthy or not? I also like ketchup w french fries and barbecue sauce w chicken. So I like tomato sauces and barbecue sauce. Are these habits healthy or unhealthy? Please only answer if you are a doctor/nutritionist or related field.

8 Answers

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  • ?
    Lv 4
    2 weeks ago

    Plain tomato sauce is healthy. In fact, all canned tomato products are healthy, because processing tomatoes releases benefits in them.  

    Bottled pasta sauces, though, include sugar and various additives.  (So does ketchup).  I make my own pasta sauces, because there are many interesting kinds and because I used to live in Italy, where I learned that bottled sauces are inferior to freshly made. I would never use Prego or Ragu or Barilla sauces.

    And note that Americans hugely over-sauce their pasta. You're not supposed to use a lot of sauce.  You may be eating too much of it.

    Doctors and nutritionists don't come here.

  • 2 weeks ago

    its nutrition value tell us it is beneficial or not

  • 2 weeks ago

    --  There are many types of "Pasta Sauce", and most do not have any tomato in them. A Cabonara sauce has cream, ham, garlic, coriander and basil in it. Others may have mushrooms as the main ingredient or some have herbs as the main ingredient (Pesto pasta).

    --  Those dishes that use tomatoes are best to use fresh tomatoes and not canned or store bought tomato sauces.  Home made tomato sauces and Barbecue sauces are healthier because you can control what amounts of salt, sugar and other herbs one use.

  • 2 weeks ago

    I objected to my children putting ketchup on french fries until I read that something about cooking tomatoes releases a powerful cancer fighter. That's one of the reasons the Mediterranean diet is considered to be so healthy. However, there is the issue of sugar in many tomato sauces.

    Might I suggest, if you only want to read information from doctors and nutritionists, that you google and read the pages written by doctors, such as nutritiondata,com. Y/A is best for getting answers from random strangers. 

  • Anonymous
    2 weeks ago

    Anton, read the ingredients list on what you buy. Most sauces in jars are pretty high in salt and some have transfats.

    Because someone mentioned Prego, I looked it up. One serving has 21% of the recommended daily salt intake. Most people eating a spaghetti dinner will have more than one "official" serving of one half a cup. (I'd have twice that, myself.) It would be easy to consume half of your day's salt in one meal.

  • Anonymous
    2 weeks ago

    Prego is one of best store bought jarred sauces i can easily find and there is nothing in it that will harm you.

    I have been eating it for decades and unlike 90% of those my age i need ZERO meds so YOU be the judge

  • 2 weeks ago

    Good luck finding a doctor or nutritionist who has the spare time to come here.

  • kswck2
    Lv 7
    2 weeks ago

    Before I went to culinary school, I Always made pasta sauce, starting from fresh Tomatoes. And yet I was taught to use canned tomatoes, which I rejected. Still make it like grandma did. But I also make my own BBQ sauce as well. WHY? Because I can control the amounts of salt, sugar and chemicals that go Into my sauce. 

    And on occasion, I will get a comment like "this doesn't taste like Prego". My response? Exactly. 

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