Many people new to low-carbing are pretty quick to hunt down low-carb “look-a-likes” and the most infamous is Dreamfields pasta. They claim it’s only 5 digestible carbohydrates while most diabetics quickly realized that it seems to raise their blood sugar just as much as regular pasta.

Jimmy Moore recently blogged about this and what was most interesting was the explanation of how Dreamfields figures that a pasta containing the same amount of wheat as normal pasta has only 5 digestible carbs. If everything works “perfectly”, perhaps the number is accurate but mostly it’s just unreliable.

In short, they mix the flour with indigestible fiber (think Metamucil) so that the fiber and gluten coat the starch, protecting it from your stomach and small intestine. Then it is broken down and eaten by the bacteria in your large intestine.

Even if it worked as claimed (as it clearly doesn’t, just read Jimmy’s post), I am not at all sure wrapping up starch in a pretty fiber ribbon and delivering it to the bacteria in your large intestine is a great idea. My guess is that it would contribute to an overgrowth of harmful bacterial which can give you painful gas, constipation, heartburn, weaken your immune system, etc.

Instead of looking for substitutions for my old carby favorites, I have found greater success by simply embracing the foods that I can eat. When you switch from a low-fat / high-carb diet to a low-carb / high-fat diet, a whole new world of food is opened up to you. Enjoy the previously forbidden (mmm bacon!) and don’t look back.