Low carb pasta? Huh? Isn’t it an oxymoron? How can something like pasta be low carb? After all, it is made from flour, lots of flour in fact, which means that your average serving of pasta contains about 50 grams of unrepentant carbohydrates. And yet, low carb pasta is real, it does exist.
Now, if you are like me, you probably hate most, if not all, low carb products. Let’s face it, an overwhelming majority of them taste like, well, I do not know – let’s just say that recently I was so traumatized by something called “low-carb pizza,” that I had to have a double cheeseburger with large fries to recover my taste buds from that deleterious experience.
So if you are extremely skeptical about low carb pasta, I am with you 100 percent. That said, I can tell you that low carb pasta has come a long way from the early days of low-carb dieting, and today we have a number of excellent choices.
Dreamfields low carb pasta The taste of this pasta is incontrovertibly great. It is made like regular pasta, but Dreamfields claims that they use a special process which neglects its carbohydrate load.
It contains 41g carbs per serving, 7g protein and 5g fiber, which leaves us with 31 grams of carbs. However, Dreamfields calls these 31 grams of carbs “protected carbs” and claims that only 5 grams of carbs should be counted as digestible.
They also claim that their low carb pasta has a 65 percent lower glycemic index than traditional pasta, which, if true, is amazing. I do not know if any of these claims hold water. All I can tell you is that I like this pasta a lot, and my blood sugar levels seem stable after I eat it.
Miracle Noodle low carb pasta The taste of this pasta is very good, but it does not taste like regular pasta. It comes very close to the taste of rice noodles. Unlike rice noodles, however, it is made entirely from fiber, which means that it has 0 calories and less than 1 percent of carbohydrates.
House Foods Tofu Shirataki low carb pasta The taste of this low carb pasta is very similar to the Miracle Noodle’s pasta. It tastes very good and is made from yam flour and soybeans. One serving (4oz.) contains 3g carbs, 2g fiber and only 20 calories.
The bottom line on low carb pasta You cannot go wrong with any of the above products. If you are looking for the European style of pasta, go with Dreamfields; if you are looking for the Asian style of pasta, go with Miracle Noodle or House Foods.