http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x67512Oh my.
First up at bat, the sparkling husband primitive, who has NOT donated to Skins's island:
Stinky The Clown (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-03-09 09:37 PM
Original message
Low Carb Pasta??? Diet Pasta??? Heart Healthy Pasta????? Diabetic Pasta????? ....... YES!!!!!!
Dreamfields
after which a photograph of some sort of boxed food
The web site says it better than I can. Read it. You'll be amazed.
http://www.dreamfieldsfoods.com/health-professionals.ht...
Barilla and DeCecco are GREAT tasting pastas. They have 38 and 41 grams of carbs.
Tonight we had Dreamfields for the very first time. And mind you, we are pasta LOVERS. Our conclusion:
Dreamfields is a really good tasting pasta. It has only FIVE digestible/absorbable grams of carbs.
And all the health professionals approve it.
Really incredible.
The well-off imperious primitive, who has NOT donated to Skins's island:
The empressof all (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-03-09 10:51 PM
Response to Original message
1. When I need to eat the Pasta Dreamfields is the only way to go. Their lasagna is incredible btw. It's really wonderful that we have some decent low carb and low fat options...It's just too bad they're sometimes hard to find. I made a Dreamfields lasagna the other day with non fat Ricotta, part skim mozz, a really nice sauce with the San Marzano tomatoes, some roasted thinly sliced zucchini and lots of fresh basil and garlic whirled in the blender with some fat free cream cheese. Yes having all the fat would have been wonderful but this was really, really decent.
The wired gassy primitive, speaking from the farmette up there in Wisconsin, who has NOT donated to Skins's island:
grasswire (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-03-09 11:06 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. okay, I'm sold
I think my Kroger's has dreamfields.
The empressof all (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 12:15 AM
Response to Reply #2
6. My grocery only carries the spaghetti
I order the Lasagna on line. I use only a half a box at a time and load it up with layers of zucchini or eggplant, fried onions and roasted peppers and half the pasta I would normally use for lasagna. That way I can eat even More! The addition of the Fat free Cream cheese whirled up in the food processor with garlic and basil really adds richness and lots of flavor. I make a deep tray and use only about a tablespoon of EVOO to brown onions.
Stinky The Clown (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 09:46 AM
Response to Reply #6
25. Ours only carries the spaghetti, elbows, and penne rigate
They make a total of about six or seven different shapes.
The elleng primitive, allegedly an attorney, who has NOT donated to Skins's island:
elleng (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-03-09 11:41 PM
Response to Original message
3. Thanks for this, Stinky, as I'm moving into my own place (in Hagerstown!) and plan to get back into cooking! Anything that will enable me to do so with such positive attributes will be greatly appreciated!
The Rita Hayworth primitive, who has donated to Skins's island:
Tangerine LaBamba (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 01:11 AM
Response to Reply #3
14. Did you take that apartment?
The one you showed me?
You did, didn't you?
When's the move-in date?
Cool, very cool, kid. This is good..............
elleng (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 01:18 AM
Response to Reply #14
15. Yup, today.
Was looking for you! Amy went with me, and likes it. Aug. 15.
Tangerine LaBamba (1000+ posts) Mon Aug-03-09 11:59 PM
Response to Original message
4. What's in it?
I can't find a list of ingredients.
OK, I'm going back to look again.
Nope, can't find it.
What's in it?
And, maybe I missed something, but what's wrong with carbohydrates?
The empressof all (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 12:10 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. Here's a link T la B
http://www.dreamfieldsfoods.com /
And there is absolutely nothing wrong with Carbs. But some of us have something wrong with us that makes it difficult to metabolize them correctly which creates havoc with our insulin levels. I Love Carbs but they don't love me. This product allows me to occasionally enjoy Pasta. It's a good thing!
Tangerine LaBamba (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 12:28 AM
Response to Reply #5
8. Ah, I see -
Yeah, if it's a health issue, then, sure, you have to love this.
But I can't find the ingredients even on that page - which I'd already studied.
It's great for you, and that's wonderful. Even schools are now going to serve it.
Pretty amazing.........................
Stinky The Clown (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 12:17 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. The ingredient list looks perfectly pasta normal .......
..... the difference is in the manufacturing process. Somehow they "sequester" a lot of the carbs. They start with 41 mg. They can discount 5 because they're fiber and don't contribute to increased blood glucose. They then somehow "lock" 31 mg in some patented way during manufacturing so they simply pass through the body and are eliminated, undigested, unmetabolized, and never having been converted to blood glucose.
The product tastes really great. Since my heart attack, we've tried all manner of alternatives to Barilla's, DeCecco's, and Ronzoni's regular, normal, mainstream pasta. The non wheat pastas taste just plain vile. The well meaning whole grain stuff tastes grainy and/or mushy. This stuff tastes like .... well ..... pasta. It has the very same mouth feel and bite.
Carbs are an issue for a lot of people. Heart and diabetes sufferers. People wanting to lose weight. Many other medical and nutritional issues.
Tangerine LaBamba (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 12:30 AM
Response to Reply #7
9. There has to be an ingredient that facilitates this "sequestering" process.
I'm lucky in that, when I can eat, I can eat whatever I want. But the more options available to everyone, the better.
I am really curious about this now, but I can't ever give up my beloved DeCecco, and the whole grain stuff?
Ick.
Ever try rice pasta? Not the Asian rice noodles, but rice PASTA, as in spaghetti?
Double ick.................................
The empressof all (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 12:58 AM
Response to Reply #9
11. I eat a lot of Shiritaki noodles
They are made with Konjac flour
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirataki_noodles
They are a staple for me as I don't eat much wheat and grain other than oatmeal. It's amazing what you can learn to appreciate when you are forced to change your diet.
I made them today for lunch with your peanut sauce...Using Powdered low fat peanut butter and Agave syrup to sub for the sugar. It would have been better with a wheat based noodle...but for me it was Heaven!
Tangerine LaBamba (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 01:02 AM
Response to Reply #11
12. Shirataki noodles are very good -
I've always liked them. And they'd be GREAT with that peanut sauce. Lots of slivered vegetables with it? I fix cellophane noodles and toss them with it, cold. Very nice.
I mentioned to my sister about finding that recipe, and she remembered it. She thinks our Mom got it from an Atkins cookbook, so it's right up your alley. I do remember that she used Equal in it, never sugar. She was constantly dieting, and I don't even know that she had sugar in the house.
I'm really glad you got this new magic pasta. And given Stinky's raving, you are in a for GREAT treat, aren't you?
The illegitimate traitor primitive, who has NOT donated to Skins's island:
TreasonousBastard (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 12:54 AM
Response to Original message
10. I've asked dieticians in diabetic classes about this stuff, and...no one will commit because no real testing has been done. It may work as advertised, or it may not-- no one knows for sure. Probably no worse than regular pasta in the worst case scenario, though.
A super-low glycemic index merely means less chance of spiking of blood glucose, but it does make it harder to check for your yourself with a home glucose meter that's often about 20-25% off.
Tangerine LaBamba (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 01:04 AM
Response to Reply #10
13. I'm curious ever since the low-fat Pringles came out.
Remember?
I'm no dieter and don't have health issues that compromise my diet - when I eat, that is - but I remember that one of the possible side effects of eating too many of these low-fat goodies was "anal leakage."
Ever since then, ingredients have been of great interest to me.
I wonder if those Pringles are still out there.....................
TreasonousBastard (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 01:40 AM
Response to Reply #13
18. I remember the warnings of anal leakage from eating...faux potato chips made even more artificial. A much as I despised Pringles, I saw no reason to ask for leakeage.
But, and this is a very big but, all ingredients don't have to be listed if they are "transitional" or whatever they call reagents and stuff they use to change food into other stuff. Splenda has "sucralose" listed as an ingredient, but what about the stuff they used to chlorinate the sugar molecules to make sucralose? And what the hell is sucralose, anyway?
Having a box of Dreamfields handy, I see it's pasta enriched with B vitamins. Then they add the fiber stuff-- inulin, guar gum, xanthan gum, carrageenan, and pectin. Inulin is a polysaccharide fiber that's used to replace flour and has maybe a quarter of flour's carb and energy content. Dunno enough about it to know whether it's good, bad, or indifferent, except it can cause gas.
The last ingredients are sorbitol, wheat gluten and potassium chloride.
Doesn't sound terribly bad, and replacing some of the flour with the gums and inulin probably controls the carb count and the glycemic index. But, with no health restrictions, I'd just rather go for the best tasting cheap noodles.
Tangerine LaBamba (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 01:52 AM
Response to Reply #18
19. Sucralose is sugar - just run through processes that make it hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, so you use a whole lot less.
Sorbitol is a sweetener that is also, I think, derived from sugar, but I don't remember the details. I do know that it causes diarrhea, and that if you have stomach problems, and see it listed as an ingredient in "sugar-free" candies, steer clear.
Not quite "anal leakage," but close enough.
These noodles sound great for people with health issues, but I'm staying with my DeCecco. It's great that others have options, though........................
The empressof all (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 02:07 AM
Response to Reply #19
20. I think sorbitol is like manitol which is another sweetener
They do have some "interesting" side effects.... I agree I'd stay with the DeCecco or Barilla if I could. Barilla actually is making a great pasta in a gold box which is higher in fiber and better for you. It's really good too but not as good for me as the Dreamfields. The thing with food is that time has shown that the most "natural" least processed food will always be usually be the product with the best nutritional value. I have nothing but admiration for those who can forgo the sugar (or sweeteners), eat only the whole grains and brown rice, and stick to organic veggies and fruits.
I have been sticking my toe in the waters of the raw food blogs over the last few days. I don't know if I have what it takes to do the daily work I'd need to do to feed myself. As it is now I'm doing less and less cooking and just throwing together salads and nuking boca burgers. But I don't think I can give up my boca burgers ...
Tangerine LaBamba (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 02:11 AM
Response to Reply #20
21. Raw is wonderful - I've always enjoyed vegetables raw. Much tastier than cooked. This started when I was a kid and Mom was fixing supper and I was starving, so I'd snitch a piece of whatever was in the works. The usual salad ingredients, sure, but also the vegetables - white potatoes, sweet potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, beets, peas (oh, man, I could LIVE on English peas!), corn - you name it, and I like it raw.
Makes salads around here rather interesting.
Try them all - I bet you'll find you have a real taste for raw. I don't know about having it as a fixed diet - you've got your Boca Burgers, I've got other stuff (right now, I'm living on fresh challah and lots of salted butter - go figure) - but it's got to be good for you, and I think you'll enjoy it.
Of course, a lot of them are pure carbs, so you're limited, but I'll be curious to see how your investigation turns out.
Just enjoy, you know?
Hmmm. Bold area, above; the Rita Hayworth primitive and franksolich have something in common, although as everyone already knows, what we don't have in common is being of the same generation, or even two adjoining generations.
The empressof all (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 02:21 AM
Response to Reply #21
22. I think the trick is not to become too strident
I mean really...I would never limit myself to never having a great hunk o beef or a slab of wild salmon every once in a while. When I was was in college I followed a Vegan diet for several years. Lots of sprouts, brown rice, whole grains, nut butters, Miso and Broccoli which was the only veggie I was able to cook perfectly at the time. I still ate chocolate..... I put on quite a bit of weight eating that way....It didn't agree with me. Ultimately I think I'd be too focused in on making all those sweet things raw food people make with the dried fruit. I love Dried fruit....But that has interesting side effects too.
TreasonousBastard (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 07:33 AM
Response to Reply #19
24. Sucralose isn't sugar any more...the hydroxyl radicals in the sugar molecule have been replaced by chlorine atoms, making it something quite different, and 600 times as sweet. Sorbitol is a "sugar alcohol" and the thing with all of this stuff is that very little is absorbed in the digestive tract-- maybe 10% or so.
I haven't been able to find anything really bad about sucralose, and with the patents expired it should soon be more common than now. I would not be a bit surprised, though, that 5 years after it knocks out Equal and high fructose corn syrup, someone will discover it causes birth defects or something. Isn't that the way it always works?
Stinky The Clown (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 07:10 AM
Response to Reply #13
23. Anal leakage ....... another reason why I have always esposed smart eating of really good food
We can modify as needed, but keep food real - or as real as possible. And yes, there are some people for whom this isn't a workable solution.
That whole anal leakage thing started with some fat substitutes that, essentially, went through the digestive process unchanged and, being oily, just sorta oozed on out the back door.
Then we got pills to cause natural fats to act the same way ...... stay undigested, get reduced to an oily substance, and ooze on out the back door long before the naturally occurring main event. Different process. Same result. There was (may still be) an over the counter drug that induced this state. It was supposed to be okay, but farts were said to be risky undertakings.
I just remembered the stuff: Alli
after which a photograph of a bottle of pills
I think I'd rather skip things like real Pringles than eat modified Pringles that have a side effect. (Did I actually say "real Pringles"????)
I like Barilla better than DeCecco. So do most Italians; Barilla is number one there, with DeCecco number two. Funny thing, though. There are a few shapes available in both for which I prefer DeCecco. Orecchiette is at the top of that list ..... DeCecco just has a way with pig's ears.
The defrocked warped primitive, who has NOT donated to Skins's island:
Warpy (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 10:49 AM
Response to Original message
26. I discovered Ronzoni Smart Pasta a few months ago, pasta enriched with calcium and finely ground fibre. The texture is that of white pasta, so you do get the best of both worlds. The local market only stocks the spaghetti and that only sporadically, but for people who don't need to cut carbs, I recommend it highly as a way to increase fibre in the diet.
It's really a great product.
Stinky The Clown (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-04-09 12:55 PM
Response to Reply #26
27. We bought a 6-pack of that at Costco a while ago
You're right, as whole grain pastas go, that's a very nice product. But even at that, it had a mushy/graininess about it that is a commonlity for the type. It was, however, head and shoulders above all the others.
While the mouth was different from regular pasta, this one had a taste that was pretty much the same as any other pasta.
The vindictive primitive, who has NOT donated to Skins's island:
Vinca (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-20-09 07:09 AM
Response to Original message
28. I have to thank you for the Dreamfields recommendation.
My husband has type 2 diabetes and we had just given up regular pasta because it was making his blood sugar go up. I found the Dreamfields at Hannafords and gave it a try last night. My husband's blood sugar was much, much lower and now we're back to eating pasta. Tastewise, there really isn't much difference, but it seems to cook faster than regular pasta. We couldn't tell the difference in the pasta salad I made.
grasswire (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-20-09 12:18 PM
Response to Reply #28
29. yeah on the dreamfields
I made a skillet pasta dinner the other night with the penne. Sauteed garlic in a bit of olive oil and butter, added in mushrooms and sweated them and caramelized them a bit, then added in some fresh tomato, then added cooked penne, then added about half a jar of pasta sauce and heated through, then added a LOT of fresh spinach, some fresh basil, and a cup of grated parm. Covered it for a minute to wilt the spinach and melt the cheese, then folded it gently together.
It was delicious. The first real serving of pasta I've had for 18 months. Didn't seem to bother my blood sugar, either.
That kind of meal will be on our menu regularly.
Vinca (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-20-09 01:14 PM
Response to Reply #29
30. Tonight I'm making a recipe using the rotini.
Saute a little bacon and remove from the pan. Add sliced summer squash and garlic and saute in the fat. After it's cooked, throw it on top of some cooked rotini. Put a little heavy cream in the pan and cook it a little until it thickens, then throw that on the pasta. Mix in some asiago cheese and serve. (Maybe I should rename this triple bypass pasta. LOL.)
grasswire (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-20-09 01:18 PM
Response to Reply #30
31. I could eat that happily
sort of a twist on carabonara. No onion, plus squash.
I'm disappointed Grandma never showed up at this bonfire.
