The Eat Well Guide helps consumers find locally grown and sustainably produced food. Listings include farms, restaurants, stores, farmers markets, and CSAs throughout the United States.
Why is it so complicated? Theyre just vegetables, right?
I know exactly what the package says, but I also know that the standard approach has been to basically recreate the replaced item by using the unhealthiest portions of the source material in order to make one healthy food a satisfactory replacement for something that is ostensibly less healthy. This is exactly what happens with chicken sausages and turkey bacon, so I’m approaching this investigation with a little more caution and skepticism than usual.
Let’s start by putting all thoughts of vegetables out of it and evaluating how well pre-packaged frozen Birds Eye Spaghetti Style Marinara veggie pasta performs as pasta by contrasting it with Michelina’s Spaghetti Marinara, which isn’t vegetarian.
Ingredients of Birds Eye Spaghetti Marinara: Cooked lentil zucchini spaghetti style pasta (water, lentil flour, zucchini), water, tomato paste, olive oil, onions, sugar, salt, garlic puree, basil, cornstarch, cooked mushrooms, mushroom extract, spices, natural flavoring, canola oil, potato flour, sea salt, onion powder
Ingredients of Michelinas Zap ems Spaghetti Marinara: Cooked enriched macaroni product (water, durum wheat semolina, wheat flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, tomato paste, canola oil, sugar, salt, modified food starch, granulated onion, granulated garlic, spices, xanthan gum, yeast extract
Actually, the list of ingredients is fairly similar; the biggest distinction is in the type of pasta; the veggie pasta is made with zucchini and lentil flour rather than wheat and other enriched flour ingredients.
We now need to equalize the serving sizes in order to compare the nutrients properly. We’re going to amplify the veggie pasta’s stats to reflect a 213-gram serving size because the regular pasta has a suggested serving size of 213 grams and the veggie pasta has 114 grams.
The vegetable pasta has more calories, as you can see, but they are still reasonable. After all, 300 calories is a pretty reasonable amount if this is meant to be a side dish for a larger dinner. Additionally, the veggie pasta is far more nutritionally balanced among its three macronutrients and still contains less sodium. All things considered, the veggie pasta from Birds Eye is a strong substitute for the typical fare.
The Eat Well Guide assists consumers in locating sustainably produced and locally grown food. There are listings for CSAs, restaurants, shops, farmers markets, and farms all over the country.