Pasta Carbonara: Calories, Nutrition & Healthier Swaps

Carbonara is pasta with egg, cheese and cured pork: rich and satisfying, high in saturated fat and salt.

Pasta Carbonara nutrition facts per 100 g and per serving

Values per 100 g as eaten, averaged from food composition tables (USDA FoodData Central and others) and rounded — a specific brand or recipe will differ a little.

Pasta Carbonara: nutrition highlights

A serving (serving, 300 g) provides 30 g of protein — about 54% of the 56 g daily reference for a 70 kg (154 lb) adult (0.8 g per kg). It has 3.6 g of fiber per serving — roughly 14% of the 25 g a day most adults fall short of. There's almost no sugar: the carbohydrate is mostly starch.

On the open Nutri-Score algorithm, pasta Carbonara gets a C: the middle of the scale — fine with an eye on portions. The score weighs calories, sugar, saturated fat and salt against protein, fiber and the share of fruit, vegetables, legumes and nuts.

What to watch

• High in saturated fat: 5.4 g per 100 g, against a daily reference of about 20 g.
• It's low in fiber, so add vegetables, greens or beans to the plate.
• A serving has 3.3 g of salt — 66% of the WHO's 5 g daily maximum.

How much movement is one serving?

One serving (serving, 300 g) is 705 kcal — roughly 3 h 50 min of easy walking or 89 min of cycling for a 70 kg (154 lb) person. In the diary, minutes are worked out for your weight and the activities you actually do.

Healthier swaps for Pasta Carbonara

Swaps are picked the same way the app does it: from the same kind of food, with a serving matched to the same calories (±25%), and only when the swap is clearly better — not “salad instead of pizza”.

• Pasta with lentils in cream sauce — 470 g, 705 kcal: −4 g saturated fat, −1.9 g salt.
• Pasta primavera — 610 g, 708 kcal: −11 g saturated fat, −2.1 g salt.
• Pesto pasta with shrimp — 490 g, 701 kcal: −13 g saturated fat, −0.4 g salt.
• Pasta with turkey in cream sauce — 440 g, 704 kcal: −3.4 g saturated fat, −1.5 g salt.