[00:00:00] Jenn Trepeck: Welcome to Salad with a side of Fries. I'm your host, Jenn Trepeck, talking wellness and weight loss for real life. We're here to clear up the myths, misinformation, bad science and marketing to teach you how to eat and how to cheat. Are you ready? I'm having salad with a side of fries. This week we're talking about Carpe DM Pasta.

[00:00:27] I'm assuming that's how you say it, because Carpe dm, but it's a B instead of a P. So first of all, shout out to Hillary h. Hillary submitted this one in a DM on Instagram, and I'll read her message, but please know, by the way, if you have an idea for an episode or nutrition nugget, if you have a question, send it in.

[00:00:46] I love hearing from you. So send your message to At Salad with the side of Fries pod on Instagram. So, okay. Hillary said, hi. I love your podcast. I have a food nugget idea. Could you please review Carpe DM pasta? I've [00:01:00] tried their penne and it tastes really good. I love that it has so much fiber. Luckily it didn't bother me.

[00:01:05] The 24 grams of fiber was a good reminder to not overeat too much pasta. Well, Hillary, first of all, thank you. It makes my day to hear that you love the show, and I love when you submit your ideas, and I think your instincts are spot on. It's a must to see how you feel when you're eating 24 grabs of fiber from noodles at a single meal, right?

[00:01:30] So before we look at anything. I will say this makes me curious about the source of the fiber and how much pasta is that serving, and I have a thought that, especially as it connects to this week's episode, but I'm gonna wait to say anything. Let's actually look at it, so, okay. Take a look. Carpe dm, their marketing says 55% less net carbs than leading traditional pasta brands.

[00:01:57] Welcome back to the pasta you [00:02:00] love. So they have lots of different shapes, and then they compare it to, like I said, this leading pasta brand in air quotes, and they compare it in terms of net carbs, fiber, and calories, which we'll look at all of that more in a minute. I frankly have no idea. What leading pasta brand they're comparing it to.

[00:02:20] So like it's kind of neither here nor there. And if you're listening to salad with a side of fries, you may not be eating traditional pasta. So it's also this as opposed to. What? Right? So then they say, spoiler alert, it's real pasta that cooks like real pasta, just rebalance with 55% less net carbs than traditional pasta.

[00:02:42] So I appreciate next they sort of just get right into the FAQ. And I appreciate that. It's like not a ton of fluff and they're just into it. So they say Carpe diem is a hundred percent wheat-based pasta, which is why our taste and texture are so spot on. [00:03:00] Okay? So if you are wheat or gluten challenged, this is a deal breaker, right?

[00:03:06] Then they say, here's the difference. When our wheat is melt, we separate it into its individual parts. That's what allows us to add back more protein in the form of vital wheat, gluten, and more fiber with modified wheat starch, reducing both the net carbs and the calories. So here's the thing guys. This is still a processed food and potentially maybe even more processed than if you buy pasta online that's made in Italy or using flour from Italy.

[00:03:36] Like if you're listening and you think I'm nuts, hang on. So like you can buy flour from Italy on Amazon. One of my colleagues does it. She buys this flour from Italy. Her kids are obsessed with the pizza and the pasta that she makes from it, and it doesn't impact her gluten sensitivity. The same way grains grown here in the US do, and we [00:04:00] see this all the time.

[00:04:01] By the way, you can go back to our episode, ancient Wheat versus Modern Wheat. For more on that. And I apologize, I digress, but I think it's another note. So, okay. I was curious about as always, like who's behind the brand. So took a quick look at their about page. So it's a startup funded and manufactured by General Mills, so do what you want with that information.

[00:04:24] The founder, Katie, she has this great video. I give them a lot of credit. I like the video. She kind of talked about what it was, and then she has this quote where basically she's saying like, people she knew and she, like everybody was limiting these like carb heavy foods and choosing. They felt like they were choosing between what's good for me and what I'm craving.

[00:04:44] And so Carpe DM was her invention to sort of close that gap, which I respect. I get it, you know. Then we have a few more claims. Great taste. Meeting your goals is so much easier when you love what's on your plate. I'm with you. She says, easy [00:05:00] swap. Eating better shouldn't be an extra step. It should fit into your existing menu.

[00:05:04] I'm with you on that too. And then she says, zero compromise with fewer net carbs and calories. We help you stick to your goals. So yes and right. I think we wanna do our own analysis of what's the compromise. So for the most part, I'm on board with this. And then, like I said, they've a ton of shapes.

[00:05:21] Hillary liked the penne, so we're gonna look at that one. So I'm going over, we see the same claims again. Serving size is two ounces dry, which gives us 110 calories, 0.5 grams of fat, 40 grams of total carbs, and 24 grams of fiber, zero grams of sugar, eight grams of protein. On the micronutrients, we have only a negligible amount of iron.

[00:05:47] So, where does this get us? Right? The fat, fiber and protein meet our trusty old rule of five when we're looking at a single processed food. And we also [00:06:00] know that there's more to consider here. So as Hillary mentioned, 24 grams of fiber all at once could be a lot for your system. So like Hillary did, and I'll say again, you wanna see how you feel.

[00:06:12] The other thing is when we do look at the net carbs, you have 40 grams of total carbs, less 24 grams of fiber. We have 16 as our net carb. Our general guideline is single digit net carbs for a single food. So that would basically be a max of like nine, right? We're looking for nine or below. This is 16, so you still may notice a blood sugar response.

[00:06:38] That's not quite what you're expecting from something with 24 grams of fiber. So it's just something to consider. And then on the protein front, it's about an ounce of protein, which means we. Definitely need to add more protein to the meal. We're definitely gonna need to add quality fat to this meal to build a balanced plate and help balance that blood [00:07:00] sugar response.

[00:07:01] So it's just things to consider again, like we have the episode building a balanced plate that we can use. To play with this. So then going to the ingredients, they have three ingredients, which I think is cool. It's modified wheat starch, semolina wheat, vital wheat, gluten. So the modified wheat starch is their fiber piece.

[00:07:19] The vital wheat gluten is their protein. They also mention that they use high quality European style semolina. Then they talk about using that as a tool for traditional pasta, flavor and texture versus what I was saying as like, and also as European style, not actually semolina from Europe. So there's a different amount of gluten in those grains, you know, and they're just grown differently.

[00:07:48] It's a different seed, it's a different product. So where does this leave us? Okay. Usually I give the caveat for you to look at the label of each variety of the thing that you're [00:08:00] gonna have here though, because the variety is in the shape of the pasta, it doesn't really change much package to package.

[00:08:09] The thing that we do wanna consider is that serving size. So two ounces of penne is gonna look very different than two ounces of elbow noodles. So this is one where like I'm not big on measuring, but I think this is one where we just need to be able to understand it. Maybe eyeball it a couple times, especially if you're gonna use different shapes to just get a sense of like, how much is that?

[00:08:32] Okay, given the net carbs and the 24 grams of fiber, this could be very filling. Yet we know that we're going to need to add more protein and quality fat to this meal. So maybe what that means is that we're having less than the full serving of the pasta. And then finally. I wanna go back to the thing that I alluded to at the beginning where like I had this concern, but I didn't wanna say anything.

[00:08:57] So I'm gonna say it. [00:09:00] And this connects to this week's episode plus our episode from early December, 2025, about, you know, the health tool no one's talking about, and that is nutrient diversity and a focus on micronutrients. And I think. This is fundamentally the challenge with grains being a primary source of fiber versus vegetables and fruit.

[00:09:23] So your 24 grams of fiber here are coming without micronutrients, right? We saw that in the nutrition facts. It was a negligible amount of iron, and that was it. So the fact that it's just different in the body when our fiber is coming from vegetables and fruit as opposed to grains. It's why I call grains super inefficient food.

[00:09:46] It's inefficient fuel for the body and what we really need. Now, with all of that said, I think I would try Carm. I would have it on occasion. I don't know that I would make it a staple. Sophie Shepherd, our [00:10:00] featured guests for this week. Your thoughts? Anything you wanna add?

[00:10:03] Sophie Shephard: Wow. I mean you, yeah, you really broke it down.

[00:10:06] This is so cool to be part of this. By the way, I would say that a big concern for me is the weed exposure, especially 'cause what you said, it's like, where's it coming from? There was some stuff that said like, I was looking while you were talking. Yeah. Like, uh, European strain. So I'd be curious like how people would feel eating wheat.

[00:10:28] At least for my population of people that I work with, most people are sensitive to wheat and it impacts 'em in some way. And we do know that wheat also can disrupt the gut microbiome by creating more of a leaky gut. And also for some people, they struggle with creating our neurotransmitters, like our serotonin.

[00:10:45] And so that's because 90% of that's created in the gut, right? Where gluten and wheat can like kind of muck up the system. So I'd be just curious about like your. Someone listening, like if you do have a wheat sensitivity, like that's just a big question mark and it's kind of a question mark at this point [00:11:00] with everyone.

[00:11:01] Yeah, for for sure because like you said, right, because it, the quality matters, but also we just know that straight up wheat and gluten can cause these issues for people without it being a quality issue. So that would be like one question I would have for, for anyone consuming it is like, are you okay to eat the food?

[00:11:14] Yeah, just basic for me that would be, this would cause like a lot of like inflammation and brain fog and depression and fatigue. So I probably wouldn't eat it. But if that aside, that's not for everybody. That's just like a good question to ask and I love your breakdown here of the fiber. Yes, there's fiber, but what's the source of the fiber?

[00:11:34] We just finished talking about all the nutrients that we need, and so I completely agree with you there. I'd almost rather see it be like a chickpea pasta or something so that there was like some other nutrients that might be coming in and yeah, I. Definitely just agree with you on the still probably a little bit of a carb bomb without anything else.

[00:11:53] Obviously, like you're probably not just going to eat like dry pasta though, so you may wanna consider like maybe if you eat dairy, maybe [00:12:00] there's a cream sauce and there's some fat and protein in there, or maybe you add chicken or something that can balance out. The carbs so that it's a more complete plate.

[00:12:09] So those are some of my thoughts. And then, yeah, I'm curious too about the distributed by General Mills. It says they have like a venture studio, which my best friend is like into Venture studios. It's kind of cool to learn about that. But General Mills like. I don't wanna say any, any one thing is bad, but we just have to think about the sourcing and that would be my like big question with them.

[00:12:27] 'cause sometimes their sourcing isn't really what I would put in my body. So I'd wanna like really understand that first. That would be a big thought for me. But yeah, I mean, if I could eat wheat, I feel like this would be a great option and I would just add those things to the plate. And you know, if it worked for me, then that'd be great.

[00:12:44] Yeah. You know.

[00:12:45] Jenn Trepeck: Exactly. Yeah. Well, Hillary h thank you for submitting Carpe dm. I hope this was helpful. And as always, everybody, I'm Gen Trebeck, your host and health coach. Connect with me on Instagram or all social media. I'm at Gen Tre, [00:13:00] J-E-N-N-T-R-E-P-E-C-K. Website is a salad with a side of fries.com.

[00:13:03] Send a message. I love hearing your takeaways, your ideas, your questions. This is also the easiest way to learn more about working with me. Sophie Shepherd, thank you again for being here and joining us. Thanks for having me. This was super fun. Yay. So fun and friend. If you are not already a member, join us in the Happy Healthy Hub.

[00:13:20] You'll go to a salad with the side of fries.com/membership. This shows your support for this podcast, this community above all your health. On top of this week's episode and full video with behind the scenes content, your 24 7, ask Me Anything, you'll get this week's recipe for seared Scallops with Pomegranate and Meyer Lemon, and 10% off my.

[00:13:38] Group coaching cohort that starts early February. Well, friends, that's it for today's episode of Salad for the Side of Fries. Congratulations for making yourself and your health a priority. Thanks so much for joining us. Be sure to click subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast platform. Share us with a friend and we'll be back next week.

[00:13:58] Always remember [00:14:00] you deserve it and you are worth it. Happy, healthy.