Nutrition Expert Reveals Top Pasta Ordering Tips for Staying Slim at Italian Restaurants!

For you, pasta isn’t just a love—it’s an obsession. In your kitchen cabinet, you’ve dedicated an entire shelf to it. White, colorful, short, long, twisted— and even alphabet-shaped to reminisce about childhood with a bowl of soup—you display your pasta like prized collectibles. Of course, your pasta must always be well-accompanied. You might go a whole week without fruits and vegetables (though nutritionally, that’s far from ideal), but running out of pesto, Parmesan, or tomato sauce is unthinkable.

At the trattoria, it goes without saying that you don’t even glance at the pizza menu. Clearly, you prefer carbonara over margherita, bolognese over capricciosa, and amatriciana over regina. You drool over every pasta name on the menu, struggling to make a choice. Tonight, though, your hesitation stems from a different reason…

Still reeling from this morning’s weigh-in (and the uncompromising scale reading), you’re now searching for options that won’t exacerbate your situation. Confused? On his YouTube channel, Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen highlights that the real trap lies in the toppings. “What really adds calories to pasta at Italian restaurants is excessive cheese. Pasta becomes quite light when topped with tomato sauce,” he explains. This might sound like common sense, but to truly balance your meal, the nutrition expert advises choosing pasta dishes that include a source of protein without overdoing the fats. This could mean opting for dishes with shellfish, chicken, ham, squid, or fish, the expert specifies.

But why is that important? Simply because proteins contribute to a feeling of fullness and slow down the absorption of carbohydrates in pasta (which helps to avoid spikes in blood sugar and the subsequent energy crashes post-meal). Faced with a choice between linguine alla vongole and farfalle with four cheeses, you now know which to pick to tip the scales in your favor…