Spaghetti is one of the most popular meals in the world, but why? If you are on a diet, is spaghetti good for weight loss? Is it associated with any health benefits? This article explores how to make the best spaghetti and when to add it to your diet.
Spaghetti
There is a growing trend in preference for comfort foods such as ramen, noodles, pasta, and spaghetti over rice, bread, and other nutritious foods. The flavors are not only incredibly good, but they are also very easy to make. Nevertheless, is spaghetti good for weight loss?,It depends significantly on the type of the spaghetti and the ingredients used.
Spaghetti is generally higher in carbohydrate and calorie content than other pastas. Therefore, it is not considered ideal for weight loss diets. However, it has a low GI value and higher dietary fiber, which makes it okay to eat only in moderation when dieting.
Is Spaghetti Good for Weight Loss?
Can you lose weight eating spaghetti? Weight loss with spaghetti is possible only when you take it while monitoring your calorie intake.
Spaghetti is considerably rich in complex carbohydrates while being high in calories. Therefore, it may seem bad for losing weight. Almost 1 cup of spaghetti may contain more than 300 calories, which can make up to 12% of your daily caloric uptake.
However, it was recently published by the Italian IRCCS Neuromed Institute that eating high carb Mediterranean food does not contribute to weight gain; instead it lowers your body mass.
It can be explained better by the fact that spaghetti is naturally rich in fiber and lower in GI value, which contributes greatly to reducing weight. It is the main reason people eat pasta but don’t gain weight.
Still, it is important not to increase your portion size by more than 1 cup as it can increase your calorie intake, which may lead to fat buildup. While eating spaghetti, moderation is necessary!
Nutrition and Calories in Spaghetti
Cooked enriched spaghetti pasta contains 239 calories per cup — a significant chunk of your daily intake if you’re on a weight-loss diet. For example, a cup of spaghetti will take up 12 percent of your calorie “budget” if you eat 2,000 calories per day, and 18 percent of the calorie budget in a 1,200-calorie diet.
Most of the calories in spaghetti pasta comes from its 47 grams of carbohydrates, but you’ll also get 9 grams of protein, plus B-complex vitamins and minerals like selenium and iron.
If you choose a whole-wheat type, the calories in spaghetti will be slightly less — 225 calories per one-cup serving — so it’s easier to fit into your weight-loss plan. If you eat spaghetti twice a week, switching from white spaghetti to whole wheat will save you almost 1,460 calories per year without making any other diet changes.
Glycemic Index and Weight Loss
If you cook your spaghetti until it’s very tender, you’re taking in a high glycemic-index meal that might interfere with weight loss. The glycemic index, or GI, measures how significantly a food affects your blood sugar levels. The higher the GI, the faster and more sharply your blood sugar will spike after your meal.
That’s less than ideal for weight loss, since rapid changes in your blood sugar levels can leave you hungry for your next meal — even if you didn’t eat that long ago. People who follow low glycemic-index diets lose weight more easily than people following high-glycemic index diets, reports the Linus Pauling Institute.
Spaghetti that’s been boiled for 20 minutes has a glycemic index of 58, compared to a GI of 46 for white spaghetti cooked for a more moderate amount of time. The pasta health benefits of whole-wheat spaghetti is an even better option if you’re trying to lower the GI of your diet. It has a glycemic index of 42.
Benefit From Fiber
Making fiber-rich foods a regular part of your diet is key for weight loss. Colorado State University Extension notes that fiber tends to make you feel more satisfied after your meal, because it absorbs water and swells to literally fill your stomach. Fiber-rich foods are also harder to chew, which means you’re less likely to eat mindlessly. A cup of white spaghetti has 2.7 grams of fiber, which is 11 percent of the daily value.
Whole-wheat spaghetti is a better option for boosting pasta health benefits from fiber. It has 6 grams of fiber per cup and provides 24 percent of the daily value.
How Does Spaghetti Help Weight Loss?
Spaghetti is rich in dietary fibers, which keeps you full for a long time, preventing you from eating more calories or desiring more food. It is also a good source of essential vitamins and minerals, which boost your metabolism and increase immunity. Moreover, the veggies and sauces you add to your meal while cooking have a significant effect on your weight.
Is Spaghetti Fattening?
Spaghetti itself is not fattening. No doubt, it may contain a good number of calories, but as a matter of fact, it has a low glycemic index value, which contributes positively to lowering the fat around the belly and body mass.
How Much Spaghetti Should I Eat to Lose Weight?
Pasta has a number of health benefits, including weight loss and fat burning. However, moderation is necessary. If you only rely on spaghetti as a source of nutrition, then it can’t help you lose weight. Therefore, you should limit its intake to 65 to 75 (dry weight) or 189 g (cooked weight) for weight loss.
How Many Calories in a Big Bowl of Spaghetti and Meatballs?
A big ball of whole grain cooked spaghetti with meatballs may contain up-to 800 calories or even more when you use high calorie sauces and other ingredients. For weight loss, it is recommended to add more veggies or keep it plain.
Is Spaghetti Bolognese Good for Weight Loss?
Spaghetti Bolognese is an Italian recipe made of a special Italian pasta sauce. Bolognese sauce is typically made of tomatoes, ground beef or pork, onions, and many other additives that have a creamy consistency. It is a rich source of nutrients, particularly iron, protein, carbohydrates, and essential vitamins.
Is Whole Wheat Pasta Good for Weight Loss?
Is whole wheat spaghetti good for weight loss? Pasta and spaghetti made of whole grains are generally good for weight loss as compared to refined pasta. It is relatively higher in fiber and lower in calories than refined spaghetti.
Is Spaghetti on Toast Good for Weight Loss?
Spaghetti on toast is one of the staple foods in some regions of the world. It is a savory and comforting food, typically made by adding the canned spaghetti on the toast. The calorie content and other nutrients may depend on the spaghetti type and the bread you are eating.
Spaghetti Recipe for Weight Loss
It is actually the ingredients that mainly contribute to weight gain. Here we come up with a special spaghetti and turkey meatballs recipe. It is easy to make and nutritious, with a more enhanced and appetizing taste.
Ingredients
- 1 lb whole wheat spaghetti
- 340 g turkey breast meat (grounded)
- 340 g lean beef (grounded)
- 1 egg
- 2 sliced bread soaked in milk
- ½ cup parsley (chopped)
- 1 onion (minced)
- 1 can tomato sauce
- 3 garlic cloves (minced)
- 2 tbsp Parmesan (grated for garnish)
- 1⁄2 tsp pepper
- 3⁄4 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
How to Make?
- Squeeze the bread out of the milk and tear it into small pieces.
- Cook the spaghetti as per the instructions written on the package and put it aside.
- Mix the beef, turkey, parsley, half onion and garlic minced, egg, and spices. Make a golf ball sized meatball.
- In the sauce, cook the meatballs and put them aside.
- In the same pan, saute the onion and garlic until they become translucent. After that, add the tomato sauce and simmer it well. Add the cooked meatballs to it and further heat it for 15 minutes.
- That’s it! Now serve the spaghetti on the plate topped with the meatballs and sauce and garnish it with parsley and Parmesan.
Total Calories: 510
Spaghetti is a staple food of Italian cuisine. It is a solid, long, medium-thin, and cylindrical type of pasta. Often eaten with various thick sauces, so it can adhere to the pasta. It is said, there to be evidence of the first written records of dried pasta found in theTalmud in the 5th century AD. However, historians also argue that Berbers were the first who introduced pasta to Europe, after their conquest of Sicily. In the 19th century, the popularity of Spaghetti was widespread in Italy, thanks to Spaghetti factories.
Although Spaghetti is delicious, is it actually healthy?
Spaghetti is not too bad for your overall health and waistline if eaten in moderation, as it is high in carbs.
Here are five steps that explain what Spaghetti is, the calorie amount in one cup of Spaghetti, as well as how to stay fit and healthy while eating this classic Italian dish.
- What Goes Into Making Spaghetti?
- How Many Calories Are in One Cup of Spaghetti?
- Understand How Many Calories You Need to Consume in a Day
- How to Make a Healthier Version of Spaghetti
- How to Stay in Shape by Eating Spaghetti
- How To Increase Your Activity Level by Eating Spaghetti
- Make Sure To Have a Consistent Cardio Schedule
How Can Spaghetti Be Good For Weight Loss?
The most effective way of eating weight-loss-friendly spaghetti is by controlling the portion size. It has very low-fat content, but we consume more than required and it results in fat formation in our bodies. The recommended serving is 2 ounces, whereas Americans eat 9 ounces.
To understand better, let’s break down the nutritional content present in spaghetti per cup.
- Calories: 239
- Carbohydrates: 47 g
- Protein: 9 g
- Fats: 2 g
- Other B-complexes and minerals.
Now, you see the problem is not in the fats but the number of calories you are consuming. For example, if you are consuming 2000 calories in a day, then a cup of spaghetti fulfills nearly 12% of your calorie intake per day.
So, you have to decide accordingly how much to consume according to your calorie requirement.
You can also try whole wheat spaghetti, which has comparatively fewer calories. It contains nearly 225 calories per cup.
Has a Moderate Glycemic Index
Glycemic index or GI is used to measure how significantly a food can affect your blood sugar levels. Now, let’s try to understand the relation between spaghetti and GI.
The higher the GI, the faster blood sugar will rise. This will make you feel hungrier for your next meal.
So, to prevent that, make sure you don’t cook spaghetti until it’s very tender as it has got a high glycemic index.
Let’s check out the glycemic index of different versions of spaghetti:
- Boiled spaghetti for 20 minutes: Index of 58
- Moderately cooked spaghetti: Index of 46
- Whole wheat spaghetti: Index of 42
The conclusion is simple. Follow a low glycemic-index diet to lose weight.
Rich In Fiber
The foods which are fiber-rich make you feel more satisfied after you have the meal as it absorbs water and swells to fill the stomach. But white spaghetti has only 2.7 g of fiber, so that may be a problem. So, you can use whole wheat spaghetti, which has 6 g of fiber per cup.
Deciding the Right Ingredients in Your Recipe
Now that you know how many calories are there in spaghetti, it’s also important to use low-calorie ingredients so that you can shed some weight. Below are some tips that can help you maintain your weight while eating spaghetti.
Refrigerate the spaghetti
Cooling any kind of pasta can change a chemical structure present into resistant starch. The starch helps to decrease the body’s response to glycemic, which ultimately leads to weight loss. This also helps to promote fat oxidation.
Weight-Loss-Friendly Serving Tips
There’s more to spaghetti than just the pasta, and you’ll need to pick a weight loss-friendly sauce if you want to drop pounds. A half-cup serving of creamy cheese sauce, for example, can add 240 calories — and 10 grams of unhealthy saturated fat — to your meal. Tomato sauce, on the other hand, has roughly 30 calories per half-cup serving, which makes it a more diet-friendly topping.
Extend your portion size without adding many calories by serving your spaghetti with lots of vegetables. Mix cooked whole-wheat spaghetti with spiralized zucchini — which has a spaghetti-like texture — to eat a bigger portion size, or mix sauteed vegetables into your pasta sauce.
Keep it classic by topping your spaghetti with chopped green peppers, onions and mushrooms, or get more experimental by adding chopped kale, black olives and artichoke to your sauce.