Field of dreams

We traditionally eat dinner at my parents' house on Saturday. It's a good way for us to stay in touch and get together for a couple of hours each week. It usually involves some kind of beef (which M loves) some starch and a vegetable.

Not long after M was diagnosed with diabetes, however, we arrived at the house for our traditional fare, when my mother lets us know that we are having spaghetti. I was a little surprised at the announcement, as Mom knows that we had M on the rigid plan. This plan allowed us a certain number of carbs within a 5 carb range at certain times of the day. Pasta would surely put us over our dinner allotment for carbs.

But, Mom was grinning. She had made a discovery at the supermarket: Dreamfields Pasta, which claims to have only 5 net carbs per serving. Oh wait! Look closer. It has 5 digestible carbs per serving.

What?

If the idea of digestible carbs is new to you, it is to me, too. I continued to read the box:

Carbs: 41
Protected carbs: 36
Net digestible carbs: 5

Pardon me for being skeptical, but what the hell is a "protected" carb? I assume we are protecting it from being digested and absorbed into the human blood stream.

I wasn't buying it. Even if the company can somehow "protect" the carbs, how can doing that be any good for you? Do they wrap the carbs in Saran Wrap?

I looked on the Dreamfields website:

"Why do you say that Dreamfields Pasta only has 5 grams of digestible carbs when the nutrition label states that it has 41 grams of carbohydrates?

While the total number of carbohydrates is the same as traditional pasta, our patent-pending formula and unique manufacturing process protects all but 5 grams of carbohydrates from being digested. The Dreamfields fiber and protein blend creates a protective barrier to reduce starch digestion in the small intestine. The unabsorbed, or protected carbohydrates then pass to the colon where they are fermented, providing the same health benefits as fiber."

Yummy.

A unique manufacturing process! That spells flavorific!

Manufacturing: the same nutritional professionals that tried to convince us that creating artificial infant formula was better for our babies, only to be shot down by mother nature's unique "manufacturing" of easily digestible proteins.

Pardon me for feeling less than enthusiastic.

But, since Mom had gone to all of that trouble to make a special pasta, we ate it.

But we covered for 41 carbs with insulin. NOT for 5.

And guess what?

M's bg was in pretty good shape afterwards.

You would think that if we had given her enough insulin to cover for 36 extra carbs, she might have suffered a low. But she didn't.

So pardon me, Dreamfields, but I think you are full of hooey.

Hey! Maybe that's the unique manufacturing process!