Carrots and spinach noodles aren't a common food combination, but they make a nutritious and colorful mix on your dinner plate. Both foods are good sources of vitamins and minerals as well as healthy carbohydrates. Neither serves as a strong source of protein or fat.
Calories
If you're eating a meal of carrots and spinach noodles, the spinach noodles will supply most of the calories. One cup of uncooked spinach noodles adds 145 calories to your calorie intake. A cup of cooked carrots adds just 54 calories. This combination provides just over 10 percent of an average 2,000 calorie per day diet.
Carbohydrates
Most of the calories in spinach noodles and carrots come from carbohydrates. One cup of carrots contains approximately 13 grams of carbohydrates, including around 5 grams of fiber and 5 grams of sugar. A cup of uncooked spinach noodles equals 26.7 grams of carbohydrates.
Protein and Fat
A meal consisting of just carrots and spinach noodles would be heavy on carbs and light on protein and fat. Carrots contain only about 1 gram of protein and less than a gram of fat. A cup of dry spinach noodles contains more protein, 5.5 grams, but just 1.723 grams of fat.
Vitamins
A carrot and spinach noodle meal contains an abundance of vitamins. A cup of carrots alone supplies more than 26,500 international units of vitamin A, far over the 5,000 IU you need each day. The noodles contain 270 milligrams of folate and there are 22 milligrams in the carrots, supplying close to the 400 milligrams necessary during pregnancy to prevent spina bifida in the fetus. Carrots and spinach noodles are each good sources of all the B-complex vitamins.
Minerals
This simple meal supplies 4 milligrams of iron, necessary for oxygen transport, a healthy chunk of the 10 to 15 milligrams of iron per day for men and post-menopausal women. Both foods are also rich sources of potassium, with 366 milligrams of potassium in carrots and 270 milligrams in the cup of spinach noodles for a total of 636 milligrams of potassium, nearly 33 percent of your daily 2,000 milligram requirement. Both spinach noodles and carrots contain small amounts of sodium, with just 54 milligrams in the noodles and 90 milligrams in the cup of carrots. The average American consumes more than 3,000 milligrams of sodium, but needs just 2,000 milligrams.
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