I want to clear up a few things about this product. There have been so many negative posts for this pasta. Some from people who have never tried it. I have a family member who is currently working with a well known pasta company on a similar product. He is a chemist. The claims made by Dreamfields are completely ligament. There is about a 2% failure factor. The process is not discussed openly because of competing companies, not because it's some sort of fraud. The process is on the molecular level. The carbohydrate is surrounded by a whole grain protein that renders it indigestible. It works! The only down side is it gives you very bad gas. But for most who are suffering with cravings and hate the soy products this is a non issue. I have read all of the negative posts and all I can say is..if you want to ignore a truly revolutionary product, fine..but for all of you who are open to this idea, just try it. All of the claims have been investigated by the FDA and approved. There are no law suits pending and no negative press..except for one thing.. The product may make you more sensitive to carb weight gain after going off a low carb diet. I use this product and love this product..and am a little tired of the "opinions" some have who are not in a position to actually know what they are talking about. And the pasta is great. It's actually better then regular pasta. You owe it to yourself to try it.

Penne Alfredo:

2 1/2 cups Dreamfields penne pasta
1/12 cups Half & Half
1/2 parmesan cheese
2 table spoons butter
1 tsp chopped galic
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Cook pasta
in separate pot melt butter and garlic over medium to low heat(do not brown)
add Half & Half and heat
add parmesan cheese and salt and pepper and thicken
when pasta is done drain and add sauce
sprinkle nutmeg over after plated
salt and pepper as needed

Please forgive me if I am incorrect but I know that some companies pay people to go onto forums and message boards and post messages about their products. I was just curious if you are just a regular lo carber looking to share and receive information and support, or if you work for an advertising agency or maybe even for Dreamfields itself. Again, if you are just here to give and receive information and encouragement, my sincere apologies.

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Started Atkins-1/2/04
174 lbs at heaviest



5'0 154/136.5/130

I assure you I am not in any way connected to this company. I am a user of this product and when I did a search for it, I came across so many negative responses that I wanted to set the record straight. I love this stuff and it has change my life because I love pasta. That was the main thing about a low carb lifestyle that made it almost impossible to stay with. Now I can stay with it. Try it..it works.. There were a number of comments like "it's too good to be true"..and the like. There's nothing magical about it. It's just a new process of which the public will be seeing a lot more of. This process will be in bread products and chips coming soon. Like I said I have a relative who is a chemist and works for a major food company. That's why I am so opinionated about it.. He has had to study this process and has bored the family to tears talking about it. -Blit

Blit, I'm sure your cousin works very hard and I'm glad that this product has no ill effects for you.

However, I have to test my BGL and that stuff makes my blood sugars rocket! My test results:

5:20 88
5:30 less than 3 oz. (dry weight) Dreamfields linguini, made a la carbonara (with bacon & cheese & egg)
6:30 156 (!)
7:00 143
7:30 131
8:00 117

This should have been about a 10 gm meal (about 7 -8 gms of which would have come from the pasta if the nutritional label were disregarded and the "5 gms per 2 oz portion" claim were used for calculations) A 10 gm meal usually gives me only a modest rise in my blood sugar, with a return to my pre-prandial range by the end of three hours. This is WAY off of any other 10 gm meal I've tried.

BTW, it's very good and I don't get any gas from it, but it may as well be regular pasta as far as my BGL's are concerned, so it's not an option in my way of eating.

For diabetics, careful testing is in order before making this a regular part of one's menu.


p.s. That is a truly incomprehensible statement. If a product changes one's metabolism in such a lasting matter, it seems a little scary.

At any rate, there are few here who don't understand that low carbing is not a diet. If one returns to the eating habits which made one fat, one will again be fat in no time at all and it matters not how one lost the weight.

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This is exactly what I'm talking about. I've been low carbing for over four years. I have kept the weight off. I've never made the lifestyle a complicated matter by checking bloodsugar or checking if I'm in or out of ketosis. I just use my head and products that work. Now, I don't know if the product changes your metabolism or not, but I do know it works and there's nothing spooky about it. This product has so many people making assumptions that are just not correct. But, like I said, if you want to keep eating disgusting soy pasta go ahead. I have eaten this pasta for months and I still have maintained my weight. I do go off of the diet several times a year because it is not healthy to stay low carb forever. I do "maintenance" periods. I have add great success. The low carb lifestyle is not a very complicated thing..but people make it out to be this scientific anomaly. Bloodsugar spike or not the Dreamfields pasta has been the best addition to my diet. I now enjoy pasta.. I would say try it before you let "opinion" or whatever dictate what will or will not work. If it doesn't work, then stop eating it.. It's not that hard.. As far as the gas goes.. I would rather have some gas and enjoy my food then try to get down some horrible nasty excuse for pasta..just me I guess..

I will add, because you're diabetic, that I have no dog in that race.. I strictly speaking from a low carb standpoint.

Oh? Forgive me, but I thought you were upset about people who never tried the product and were bad-mouthing it. That's why I bothered to post at all, since I DID try it (twice actually, in the interest of accuracy).

BTW, I am no longer pre-diabetic (I changed my lifestyle right before I got the "final" label) and have maintained normal blood sugars for over 6 years now, and I completely disagree that Adopting the Atkins Nutritional Approach - as a way of eating, not as an intermittent "diet" - has turned around all my stats from my blood sugar, to weight, to lipid profile. I really do believe that this is the healthiest way for homo sapiens to eat.

Of course, everyone is entitled to make choices as he or she feels fit. I'm glad this works in your way of eating, whatever that is. It is an "ok" choice for many of our members. However, it is not a good choice for some people. Everyone needs to be aware of this.

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OK, I have to pipe in here...

I have to second what Maggie said here.

Without discussions about why a product did or did not work for someone, we, as a LC community, would not have the knowledge base that we have.

This pasta isn't being singled out. It's just one of the many that we've had discussions about. And that's how we learn. And how we know to experiment with what we're eating. Just like malitol, (and all the other sugar alcohols), glycerine in LC bars, etc... YMMV (your mileage may vary) and I think we'd be doing a disservice to our members by not discussing our respective experiences with these products and sharing our collective wealth of knowledge. It's through these discussions that someone who is struggling or stalling may discover a reason why. I think we'd all agree that you can't take a food company's claim at face value. Their motivation is their bottom line. You have to test it for yourself and decide if it will work with your bottom line.

True. And false. LC is pretty simple. However, the market has been deluged with LC products and "frankenfoods" of late. So, you have to be diligent about what you decide to eat. BUT, I also think what happens is that as people start to heal their bodies, they begin to learn more about nutrition and how it can be a cause for other ailments. Then they start to eduate themselves and discuss these ailments/symptoms/solutions with others on the board. Many people learn a lot about themselves and how to fix their ailments through healthy eating by doing this. (Sharron Long, one of our moderators, is a prime example. She's treated many of her ailments by tweaking the LC diet for her needs. And she's been generous enough to share this information on the boards to help others who might be experiencing what she has.) So, I think this may be where you're getting the idea that some LCers think it's a "scientific anomaly."

Bottom line - you can learn a lot from healthy discussions. The positive and the negative need to be discussed. Everyone has a right to their opinion, discuss it with others (why else would we have discussion boards?) and also to make their own choice based on what they've learned.

Mada

Nobody said anything about no discussion.. I thought that was what I was doing. I am frustrated with the attitude about this product or I would have come here and posted. It's all over the net to avoid this product and that's just silly. This pasta should be tried before a judgment is made. Discuss all you want, but try it.. That's what I'm saying. Don't stop at someone's words and not give it a shot. You will miss out on a good thing. If you stall, you stall..stop eating it.. And as for the low carb lifestyle being a permanent diet..I think that is VERY unhealthy for the kidneys. Your body can take a lifestyle diet of 50 carbs and under for only so long before it will start showing signs of malnutrition. The maintenance approach is a much better approach. My doctor is a fan of the diet, but is very adamant about not staying on it for too long a time...and she's right. I develop kidney problems when I'm on it too long. It helps to drink a lot of water while on this diet. You can "discuss" it all you want, but if you advocate this diet for a lifetime, you are very unwise.

Nope..NOT a pipedream pasta..at all..

According to the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, low carb diets "may be safe" in the short term. Also, in the short term, individuals on a low-carb diet tend to lose more weight than individuals on other low fat diets. The Key here is short term. The same studies show that long term exposure to low carbohydrates will cause the body to start breaking down muscle tissue as fuel.

Dr. Ian Smith of Men's Health magazine reports that a 1995 study found that diets similar to Atkins are detrimental to complex cognitive performance and brain function after only one week. The bad news is the increased risk to an individual's health. For example, if the body is burning large amounts of fats without sufficient dietary carbohydrates, the body produces ketones. These ketones produce side effects such as headaches, dehydration, bad breath and nausea. Over time "health care professionals fear bone loss, muscle breakdown and kidney disease" as a result of low carb diet induced ketosis, reports Ann Saul Dudrich of the Tribune-Review.

An additional side-effect of the low-carb diet is an increased risk for heart attack. Although two recent studies in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that low carb diets do not increase LDL or bad cholesterol levels long term, doctors still acknowledge the increased risk of heart attack. One of the authors of this study, Frederick F. Samaha, believes that "Odds are" a low-carb diet that is high in fat is going to increase the risk of heart attack.

...So, as I was saying..staying on this diet for the long term in VERY unwise..

Well, I have never been much of a bread/pasta/chip person, so it really doesn't matter to me. These food items always seemed (to me) like "filler" to make the other food it's with go farther. My "demons" are the sweets: cookies, brownies and donuts. And if those are made low carb, they have sugar alcohols in them that MY body cannot digest. Yuck.
Low carb is now a way of life for me and I'm MUCH healthier for it....MY doctor and MY numbers say so. That's all I want to say for now. I'll let the long-time vets say the rest.

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As I said, I have been doing this for over four years.. I consider myself a "long-time vet." Not craving these items is great.. A lot of us crave them very much. Sugar IS a big prblem..I crave that as well. I eat the usual low carb chocolate and the like in small amounts. This stuff makes me feel like crap, but it will take the craving away. I will stand buy my statement that it is unwise to stay on this all the time, but you guys do what you like. There is enough documented evidence for me not to risk my health on this diet..

Blit, you sound like a vet, but not of a low carb lifestyle - which, at it's core, requires a good balance of protein and fats along with large quantities of vegetables, and also includes low glycemic fruits, nuts and healthy whole grains such as flax. A low carb way of eating is designed not only for weight loss, but for health improvement.

You make it pretty clear that you have engaged in repeated bouts of "dieting" in a manner that you consider to be nutritionally dangerous. I dare say that cycling back and forth between a low carb diet full of frankenfoods and typical western high carb eating might very well BE dangerous. Nevertheless, everyone here knows that I'll defend your right to put whatever your want into your body, for good or for ill. Your body, your choice.

I'm not going to refute each of the numerous mis-statement in your posts. I don't know if this is due to your confusion or deliberate misrepresentation regarding the growing body of research. Whatever your problem, most of our members have followed the research very closely and will recognize each inaccuracy.

If you came here to learn about how to develop a healthy low carb lifestyle, then you've come to the right place.

If you came here to "save us all from ourselves" based on misconceptions and misrepresentations, you might as well save your breath.

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