A pasta dish comprising fettucine with scallops and chicken contributes protein, carbohydrate and fat to your diet, along with assorted vitamins and minerals. A portion of 4 ounces of fettucine plus 100 grams – about 3.5 ounces – each of scallops and chicken breast, with no added sauce or cheese, supplies you with 425 calories. That's 165 calories from chicken, 150 from pasta and 110 from scallops.
Protein
Protein is the most abundant macronutrient in plain fettucine with scallops and chicken. Chicken provides the most protein, with 31 grams in a 100-gram serving, followed by scallops with 20 grams per 100 grams of mollusk. A 4-ounce portion of fettucine supplies nearly 6 grams for a total of 57 grams of protein when you consume these foods together. The protein in both the chicken and the scallops contains all the essential amino acids you need for good health and is therefore considered nutritionally complete.
Carbohydrate
Fettucine contributes the bulk of the carbohydrate in a dish including 4 ounces of plain pasta and 100 grams each of scallops and chicken. Of the 34 total grams of carbohydrate, more than 28 grams comes from the fettucine, with the remainder from the scallops. Chicken adds no carbohydrate at all to the dish. Your body relies on dietary carbohydrates for the energy they provide to fuel your physical activities as well as to maintain your basal metabolic rate.
Fat
Fettucine with scallops and chicken delivers little fat to your diet, provided you eat it plain. A 4-ounce serving of pasta has just over a gram of fat, 100 grams of scallops give you less than a gram and 100 grams of chicken breast add 3.5 grams of dietary fat. While fat is a vital macronutrient that provides energy and delivers fat-soluble vitamins, a low-fat diet may be appropriate if you are cutting calories as part of a weight-loss regimen. Plain fettucine with scallops and chicken, with less than 6 grams of total fat, can therefore be a healthy meal choice for a fat-restricted diet.
Vitamins and Minerals
Taken together, fettucine with scallops and chicken is a rich source of vitamins and minerals. A 100-gram portion of chicken meets more than 90 percent of your daily requirement for niacin while an equivalent serving of scallops gives you 90 percent of your daily vitamin B-12. Fettucine, in a 4-ounce serving, supplies 20 percent of the thiamin and 14 percent of the riboflavin you need each day. The same amount of scallops and chicken, eaten together, adds almost all the phosphorus you need each day, and all three foods together provide roughly 20 percent of your everyday need for iron.
References
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference
- University of Illinois McKinley Health Center; Macronutrients: the Importance of Carbohydrate, Protein, and Fat; March 2008
- University of Illinois McKinley Health Center; Vitamins and Minerals; March 2008
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Best Foods for Specific Vitamins; November 2006
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