Ahh, pasta. Without it, we wouldn’t have comfort foods like spaghetti and meatballs or macaroni and cheese.
If you’re on a low-fat diet or are trying to limit the calories you eat (such as for weight loss), you might gravitate towards low-fat pasta. Which pastas are the lowest in fat, though?
Some of the lowest-fat pastas are:
- Cassava pasta (grain-free/Paleo)
- Shirataki noodles
- Regular pasta
- Veggie pasta
- Lentil pasta
- Whole wheat pasta
Just how much fat is in each of these pastas, and how do they compare nutrition-wise? We have those answers and more!
Is pasta a low-fat food?
Pasta is typically made from a dough made of durum wheat flour and water. Occasionally other ingredients like eggs are added (such as egg noodles), but in general, pasta is just made from wheat.
Wheat is low in fat, so pasta is generally considered a low-fat food. Of course, this can change based on what you add to your pasta. Oil, butter, pesto, and other high-fat sauces can turn pasta into a high-fat dish very quickly – but plain pasta is generally low in fat.
6 low-fat pastas
Grain-free pasta (cassava pasta) – 0 grams per serving
There aren’t many Paleo-friendly pastas out there (wheat and legumes are excluded on a Paleo diet, which reduces your choices by quite a bit!), but cassava flour pasta fits the bill.
What is cassava pasta? It’s made from cassava flour, which is produced by drying and grinding the cassava root, a starchy root vegetable. Because it’s grain-free and doesn’t contain legumes, cassava flour pasta is considered Paleo-friendly (but not keto-friendly because it’s high in carbs).
Cassava flour pasta is the lowest-fat pasta on our list with NO fat per serving!
Shirataki noodles (low-carb) – 0.5 grams per serving
What the heck are shirataki noodles? We’re glad you asked! Shirataki noodles are a low-carb favorite and are made from the konjac plant, not wheat. They are low in fat, calories, and carbs – there’s not much to them nutrition-wise, as you’ll see in the table we’ve compiled at the end of this article!
“Regular” pasta – 1 gram per serving
Regular pasta is made from non-whole-wheat enriched durum wheat flour (semolina). It’s lower in fiber than whole wheat pasta because the fiber-rich outer layers of the wheat kernel are excluded.
Regular pasta is made into all sorts of shapes like spaghetti, macaroni, penne, and many more – the main difference among the numerous types of pasta is the shape the dough is formed into!
Veggie pasta (Ronzoni Garden Delight) – 1 gram per serving
Don’t let the term “veggie pasta” make you think it’s only made from vegetables. Store-bought veggie pasta is usually just regular pasta with some vegetables added, but it’s almost nutritionally identical to regular pasta (refer to the table at the end of this article).
Lentil pasta – 1.5 grams per serving
A plant-based option that is good for people with wheat allergies or gluten intolerance, lentil pasta is made from lentil flour. Lentils are fiber-rich and high in protein while being low in fat, so lentil pasta made our low-fat pasta list.
Whole wheat pasta – 1.5 grams per serving
Higher in fiber than its enriched counterpart (regular pasta), whole wheat pasta is low in fat since there isn’t much fat in wheat kernels. It’s slightly higher in fat than regular pasta because of the inclusion of the wheat germ, which is the part that is highest in fat (and the germ is removed to make enriched flour, the type regular pasta comes from).
Nutritional comparison of low-fat pastas
| Pasta (2 oz. dry unless specified) | Calories | Total fat (saturated) | Total carbs (fiber) | Protein |
| Cassava pasta (grain-free/Paleo pasta) | 200 | 0 g (0 g) | 49 g (4 g) | 1 g |
| Shirataki noodles (100 grams) | 20 | 0.5 g (0 g) | 5 g (3 g) | 0 g |
| Regular pasta (enriched flour) | 200 | 1 g (0 g) | 42 g (3 g) | 7 g |
| Veggie pasta | 200 | 1 g (0 g) | 40 g (2 g) | 8 g |
| Lentil pasta | 180 | 1.5 (0.5 g) | 34 g (11 g) | 13 g |
| Whole wheat pasta | 180 | 1.5 g (0 g) | 39 g (7 g) | 8 g |
FAQs:
Shirataki noodles, hearts of Palm “pasta”, and spiralized veggies are popular low-calorie (and low-carb) pasta alternatives.
Spaghetti itself is low in fat, but it can become a higher-fat food when you add things like meat sauce, oil, and cheese.
Plain pasta is a low-fat food and is suitable for low-fat diets. Be careful about things you add to pasta like oil, butter, and cheese, which can quickly add fat and disqualify the pasta from being a low-fat food.
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