What was the Outcome of the Dreamfields Pasta Lawsuit?
Updated February 06, 2015.
Originally posted in my blog in April of 2014
Ah, Dreamfields pasta...so many thought it was the answer to their low-carb pasta prayers. But those people should now be able to get a little of the money they spent on the pasta back. A class-action lawsuit filed last year on the basis of false advertising has reached a settlement, to the tune of $7.9 million.
Until recently, the company claimed that most of the carbohydrate in its pasta was "protected" by a "patented matrix", so that the product would not raise blood sugar.
But they no longer can say that.
From the beginning, there was controversy about the product. Some people reported that they had high blood sugar spikes after eating it, while others seemed to have no problem with the product. While some of this may have been due to the way the pasta was prepared and stored*, several careful tests of the pasta by low-carb bloggers showed that it had the same glycemic effect as regular pasta. Even more telling, a small study published in the medical journal Diabetes Care showed the same thing.
Already, Dreamfields has changed the text on its packaging and Web site. There is no longer a claim that the pasta is low-glycemic, or that it has "protected carbs" as opposed to "digestible carbs". Instead, they are mainly emphasizing that there is more fiber in the Dreamfields products than in regular pasta. Still, their ambiguous slogan "Healthy Carb Living" is featured prominently.
When the information is published about how to file for a refund from Dreamfields, I will post it here on my blog.
More Links about Dreamfields
- My 2011 Report on Dreamfields Pasta
- Deborah Krueger on Dreamfields on her Low-Carb Scams Web site
- Jimmy Moore Writes About the Lawsuit
- Text of the Lawsuit
- Text of the Settlement Agreement
*For best results (which still probably won't be all that great), cook the pasta only until al dente -- the minimum cooking time on the package. Also, eat it right away as the longer it is stored the more glycemic it becomes. Also, acidic ingredients, such as tomato sauce or the dressing on a pasta salad makes the pasta more glycemic if it sits long at all.
Image Courtesy of Dreamfields Foods
Alternatives that really ARE low-carb:
Source...