When Mark O’Meara and his spouse quit smoking very last yr, he skilled an all much too widespread dilemma: He gained weight—35 pounds, for being actual. And so O’Meara, a 46-12 months-aged computer programmer, and his spouse, Char, vowed to get spine in shape by following a low-calorie Weight Watchers program.

But there was a wrinkle. The O’Mearas, who reside in a small village referred to as Lake inside the Hills, Ill., adored pasta and sat down to massive bowlfuls of spaghetti two or three nights per week. Based on Weight Watchers, the high-carbohydrate, calorie-dense food stuff was away from-limits on the O’Mearas if they desired to shed kilos

So when Mark O’Meara discovered a milky white, gelatinous Japanese noodle with only 20 energy a serving called shirataki, he was thrilled.

O’Meara was browsing by means of Your Food plan journal when he read that shirataki, built from a yam-like Japanese root referred to as konnyaku, was a thing of your miracle meals. Shirataki has no fat and couple of carbohydrates and comprises a mere 20 calories a serving, compared with an normal of 200 for fettuccine or ziti. To your O’Mearas, the pale, chewy noodle was a dieter’s holy grail.

“We both just received a smile on our faces with all the initially mouthful,” Mark O’Meara recalled.

Now they depend on their own between a rising group of shirataki-obsessed dieters or konjac  noodle.

Shirataki, lengthy a staple in Japan, has grow to be a bona fide diet plan food craze inside the United States. The noodles are marketed in significant supermarket chains like Entire Foods Markets as well as in little, specialized health and fitness foods stores throughout the country. Lately, added chains like Shaws, Publix and ShopRite have inquired about carrying it.

In accordance with suppliers, rising shirataki product sales are linked to dieters incorporating the reduced-calorie noodles into their excess weight-reduction strategies. The leading U.S. producer, Home Food America Corp. in Garden Grove, Calif., which has sold shirataki given that September 2002, says sales are on monitor to in excess of triple from previous season, with common month-to-month sales growing to $seventy seven,500 from $23,333.

The Property Foods type has additionally been a best vendor in Amazon.com’s gourmet foodstuff part, wherever it’s outlined as “fettucine shaped tofu” since the type incorporates a blend of tofu and konnyaku. Higher desire at Amazon has even triggered supply delays, with buyers reportedly ready up to a month to collect shipments.

Shirataki sales have exploded despite an absence of advertising around the part of manufacturers.

The reality is, their burgeoning acceptance might be attributed nearly exclusively to Lisa Lillien, 39, publisher of Hungry-Woman.com plus a self-proclaimed multimedia eating habits guru.

Immediately after discovering the noodles at her nearby Heavenly Eating habits Shop in Sherman Oaks, Calif., very last April, Lillian posted a rave overview on her Net site. “We are unable to quite possibly commence to explain to you how much we appreciate and cherish these noodles,” she wrote, referring to herself inside plural. The put up has considering acquired a lot more than hundred,000 hits and Lillien has personally attained virtually one,000 e-mail messages and calls concerning the item.

In late December, Lillien also wrote rave articles about shirataki for both equally MSN.com As properly as your Diet plan magazine. And in mid-January, Lillien promoted the noodles within the “Further” TELEVISION software, exactly where she does an everyday weight loss plan product segment.

“With shirataki noodle ,” Lillien claimed, “it is feasible to eat 20 occasions the amount of pasta to the very same quantity of calories.”

She extra, “I suppose I’m to blame for each of the madness.” The noodle makers agree.

Brian Stewart, the Household Food East Coast gross sales consultant, claimed the organization marketed 10,000 deals of shirataki as a end result of Amazon.com within the 7 days after Lillien’s “Added” segment. Upcoming calendar month, the company is scheduled to open a manufacturing plant in Sommerset, N.J., to enhance nationwide distribution.

Michael Li, founder of Konjac Food, a modest household business enterprise in Sunnyvale, Calif., that sells konjac goods, estimates that his gross sales—about three,000 models of shirataki every calendar month—have improved by 50 p.c for the rationale that “Added” segment. Li says that his business doesn’t market because it cannot nevertheless pay for to accomplish so. “We simply placed The net site up; we failed to do whatever,” said Li, 43, the company’s founder, with a satisfied chuckle.

Even though prospects have flocked to the low carb noodle , the merchandise has attained its share of damaging evaluations. In accordance with some buyers, shirataki includes a “fishy” smell and “bouncy” texture. A evaluation of the noodles on on-line forum LowCarbFriends.com in contrast consuming them to chewing on a mouthful of rubber bands.

The manufacturers say boiling the noodles for just two or three minutes as directed renders them very similar to conventional pasta.

Lovers just like the O’Mearas seem to agree. They dig in to shirataki twice per week, topped with every little thing from tomato sauce to turkey chili. “They are not great,” Mark O’Meara explained, “but they are fairly darn near.”

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