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September 5, 2014

Move over, Rag and Prego: It's the little guys like Cucina Antica, Dell'Amore, Engine 2 Plant-Strong (from Whole Foods), Rao's, and Victoria Low Sodium that are among the healthiest and best-tasting pasta sauces in the land, according to a review published in the September edition of Nutrition Action Healthletter. The lesser-known brands can be a bit more expensive, but their use of premium ingredients means they're less likely to be loaded with salt. Nutrition Action's Best Bites have no more than 250 milligrams of sodium per half-cup serving of tomato sauce no small feat when some mainstays like Newman's Own or Buitoni can have more than twice that amount. Honorable Mentions have no more than 350 milligrams.

Nutrition Action also looked at vodka sauces, Alfredo sauces, and pesto. Victoria Low Sodium, Cucina Antica, and Monte Bene make the sole Best Bites in the vodka sauce category, all with no more than 150 calories, 250 mg of sodium, and 2 1/2 grams of saturated fat per half cup. Nutrition Action found no Best Bites in the Alfredo category. The worst sauce in that category is Mario Batali's version of Alfredo, with 280 calories, three-quarters of a day's worth of saturated fat (16 grams), and 530 milligrams of sodium per half cup.

"Thanks to cream, butter, and three cheeses, Mario Batali's Alfredo sauce has three-quarters of a day's supply of saturated fat per half-cup serving," said Nutrition Action's Jayne Hurley. "Pair it with a 200-calorie cup of pasta and you're looking at the equivalent of a 10-ounce ribeye steak from Outback Steakhouse."

(To his credit, Mario Batali's Tomato Basil is among Nutrition Action's Best Bites in the tomato sauce category, and tastes delicious.)

Among prepared pestos, Trader Giotto's (from Trader Joe's) has the distinction of selling both the best (its refrigerated Genova) and the worst (its Pesto alla Genovese). They're both in the same range for calories and saturated fat. But the former pesto has just 140 mg of sodium per quarter-cup serving while the latter has six times as much (840 milligrams).

Nutrition Action recommends being realistic about serving sizes. Nutrition Facts labels assume one-cup servings of pasta, half-cup servings of tomato or vodka sauce, and quarter-cup servings of Alfredo sauce. Restaurants typically dish out three or four cups of pasta in a serving.

"Find your serving and multiply the numbers on Nutrition Facts labels accordingly," says Hurley.

Nutrition Action Healthletter is published 10 times a year by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. The current edition also features a cover story about diet and breast cancer and three healthy pesto recipes from the Culinary Institute of America-trained Healthy Cook Kate Sherwood. Print and electronic subscriptions are available at NutritionAction.com.