What are 'protected carbs'?
 

Looking at my Dreamfields Pasta, the nutritional info says that per serving it has 42 carbs and 5 gms of fiber. Then it also says that there are 37 protected carbs, so the digestible carbs per serving are 5.

I don't understand. Should I really be counting only 5 per serving, or should it be 37? What's a protected carb?

forgive me if this question has already been answered a thousand times - I couldn't find it in a search.

Check out Dreamfields' website. They have a ton of technical mumbo-jumbo about their pasta. Personally, I love it. Tastes as good as "regular" pasta and I've had no problem with the scale the next day - whether it's cooked, reheated, chilled, etc. There was some hearsay about the blockers being compromised if you reheat or chill the pasta overnight. I, personally, didn't find it to matter. Everybody is different.

However, if you're following induction, no pasta is allowed regardless. I saw you're doing Fatkins, so I don't know if you have your own spin on Atkins itself or if you're being "punny." :)

Check out the site (Google it) and they'll give you $1 off if you decide to go for it.

There were a few LOOOOOOOONG threads about it, but they seem to have been archived or something. I couldn't find them either.

I'm still testing the Dreamfields on myself. I'm personally leary of any of those kinds of claims, so my first test was with one ounce (dry weight). No problems. I ate it with just butter, Italian herbs and parmesan cheese. It was yummy. I'm looking forward to trying it again, next time with 2 ounces! :yum: We have some friends coming over next weekend... they requested my red sauce, so looking forward to having that. Haven't had it since I started the plan...

Be careful of the gluten
 

I'm gluten-intolerant, and one way to make pasta LC is to increase the gluten. Therefore, this category of products is actually worse for me than its whole-carb equivalent. YMMV, and if you don't have trouble with gluten, then it's just a matter of conducting your own experiment.

Gluten Intolerant
 

My sister is gluten intolerant also. I have been trying to get her to get on the Atkins diet to help her out. She is very overweight. She likes the rice pastas, but I think if she tried Atkins, she might be successful! I shop for her at Trader Joes when I am up there, but I feel for her with the Celiac's. Glad she finally found out what was causing her stomach troubles though.
Happy Saturday all!! :wave:
Laura

I have tried Dreamfield's and can't tell a difference between it and "normal" pasta. It is good. I guess that only way to know for sure on the so-called protected carbs is to test it with ketostix but when I ate it I was on a much higher (semi-cheat) state so I wouldn't have registered in ketosis anyways.

Ditto for me. I make "pasta" by slicing green cabbage into lasagne, fettucini or spaghetti - shaped noodles. And you don't have to cook them separately from the rest of the dish, so there are fewer pots to clean up afterwards.

Actually, some diabetics who "tested" the claims about Dreamfield's by eating the recommended serving size plain (no sauce, butter, etc.) have found that they still got blood sugar spikes. The only difference seems to be that the spikes occur later than they would have from eating regular pasta (around 4 hours, I think.)

Sorry, my twisted humor could not resist.;) :lol:


Carbs with bodyguards?

i made party pasta salad for easter using dreamsfields pasta and have been eating it all week, am in fact eating it this minute lol, and i've lost one half to a pound every day, so i don't think there is any adverse carb reaction going for me there. i use dreamsfields on occasion without difficulty. ymmv though.

:lol: kevin! :lol:

love it with home made alfredo suce ( cream and butter and parmesean cheese)

Thanks for the laugh Kevin - and I think that is as close as I am going to get to understanding what a protected carb is.

I was not protected from gaining a pound as of this morning after my pasta meal, however. I'm glad others do OK with it, but as for me - not until I'm closer to my goal will I experiment again.

great thread!

You know I always wonder about the way they get the net carb numbers on those Atkins and other bars because they don't do the carbs minus the fiber formula. The Dreamfield website says that protected carbs are not like net carbs because they are looking at how these carb affect BG. The reason protected carbs aren't suppose to trigger an isulin release is because the carby starch has been modified (see last paragraph). They never say it's fewer carbs than the 40+ per package on their site though.

On another LC support website a woman said that her BG spikes when she eats this, so I'm hoping people here with a bg device will also post to help us see if this really does or doesn't work. It seems like another YMMV; like sf stuff that can set off an insulin release in one person and not another.

From their website:

Dreamfields "digestible carbs" are determined by a clinical method that measures the blood glucose response of the whole food to establish its glycemic load or content of digestible carbohydrates. This is unlike net carbs which is simply determined by estimating the digestibility of individual food components. The clinical testing is conducted at an independent clinical laboratory.
Protected carbohydrates or "resistant starch": These are carbohydrates that resist being digested particularly in the small intestine. When they cannot be digested in the small intestine, they pass to the colon where they perform as dietary fiber. They may occur naturally, be created by chemically modifying carbohydrates prior to ingestion or achieve resistance through properly formulated foods being processed by the body. Resistant starches occur naturally at various levels in many foods, like cooked and cooled potatoes, unmilled grains, seeds, legumes, bananas, and high amylase starches. Most resistant starches are produced by concentrating naturally resistant starches and/or by chemically modifying carbohydrates in order to produce a starch with low digestibility. Dreamfields creates protected carbohydrates without chemical modification by utilizing combinations of standard food ingredients to "protect" digestible carbohydrates from being broken down by digestive enzymes. Carbohydrates resistant to digestion have been shown in scientific study to help control blood glucose, blood cholesterol and blood triglyceride levels, normalize insulin levels, and help improve the health of the colon lining, thus reducing the potential for ulcers and inflammatory diseases of the large intestine.

Thanks for that information kandra... I've found myself tempted to order the dreamfields.... but ... I don't want to take a chance that it'll set off cravings in me. Your post reminded me of that!!