
Japanese Company Makes Low-Calorie Noodles Out of Wood - trextrex
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-17/tree-noodles-a-low-cal-fat-free-way-to-beat-chinese-competition
======
MrJagil
A common ingredient in baked goods is an amino acid derived from human hair:
[http://www.naturalnews.com/032718_L-
cysteine_commercial_brea...](http://www.naturalnews.com/032718_L-
cysteine_commercial_bread.html)

Edit: Here's the wikipedia
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysteine#Industrial_sources](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysteine#Industrial_sources)

~~~
riffraff
> As of 2012, the European Union requires that all L-cysteine be produced from
> sources other than human hair.

Still interesting, but probably outdated.

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AndrewDucker
Reminds me of this quote from Good Omens, where Famine now spends his time
coming up with new foods (“indistinguishable from any other [food] except for
[…] the nutritional content, which was roughly equivalent to that of a Sony
Walkman. It didn’t matter how much you ate, you lost weight. […] And hair. And
skin tone. And, if you ate enough of it long enough, vital signs”).

~~~
iMark
And yet, even with those caveats, I'm sure such a product would find a market
in modern times.

cf Soylent.

~~~
masklinn
Isn't the goal of soylent the inverse, closer to the "meal in a pill" of mid-
century science fiction?

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ucaetano
It's interesting to compare this with Soylent: while Soylent provides
nutrition without the pleasure of eating, this provides the pleasure of eating
without risking overnutrition (in other words, getting fat).

I wonder why aren't there VC firms dumping huge amounts of funding in stuff
like this (or maybe I'm just not aware of)?

On a separate note, why would someone eat Soylent? Oily farty flavorless sand
milkshake? I wouldn't eat it even if it was free! Now this wooden noodles
stuff? Sign me up!

~~~
outside1234
I used Soylent on a super long backpacking trip where space and weight were
huge considerations. It tasted awful but was incredibly effective from a
dietary perspective.

~~~
ucaetano
I agree with the practical uses of it: emergency rations, etc. But why would
anyone voluntarily unnecessarily eat it is beyond my comprehension. But then,
some people might not enjoy eating as much as I do :)

~~~
dasboth
The positive stories I've heard about Soylent revolve around convenience. Even
for someone who loves to eat, Soylent can be practical for 50-70% of your
meals which makes you enjoy the other 30-50% more. I assume Soylent is also
cost-effective, but I have no idea.

I tried DIY Soylent (as the 'real' stuff wasn't available in Europe) but after
one batch of disgusting sawdust I gave up. It was a shame as I could see the
benefits.

------
masklinn
> There are already noodles made just from konjac, also known as Devil’s
> Tongue or Voodoo Lily because of the plant’s striking flower. But it has
> been difficult to sell because of its bitter taste, according to Keiichi Ohi

Having tried _konnyaku_ (skewered blocks though, not noodles), my issue was
not so much taste (which is pretty much non-existent, all the flavor came from
the sauce) as texture, superficially very slimy jelly with surprisingly firm
internal consistency, it was somewhat gag-inducing.

I'd be interested in learning how the texture changes by introducing cellulose
mix into konnyaku.

~~~
cstross
My wife is vegan (and a Japanophile) and uses konnyaku as a meat substitute --
the issue is flavouring, and with various seafood flavours (often seaweed-
derived) it makes an excellent fish/shellfish substitute. One thing to note is
that it requires boiling before further cooking to get rid of the initial
rather off-putting aroma.

I've lately begun seeing it show up as the base of various "gluten-free diet
wonder-food" products in our local wholefood supermarket (in the UK), at about
five times the price it is in your typical Chinese/Asian foods supermarket ...

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Drakim
I remember there was a controversy when it came to the public's attention that
there was cellulose (wood) in many popular brands of bread.

Personally I see nothing wrong with it, in fact, it seems like a pretty clever
"food hack". We have sugar substitutes, so why not this?

~~~
awakeasleep
The issue is that there are plenty of people who rely on the food energy
contained in those carbs.

This was an enormous problem during the American industrial revolution, where
already food-insecure families were buying products covertly made from "Potato
flour", the insoluble fiber left once all nutrition was dissolved from
potatoes. "Potato flour" was added to everything from sausage to bread as a
filler and substitue for more expensive ingredients. This resulted in the poor
watching their children and families starve despite seeming to eat regular
full meals.

In a perfect world, there would be a net benefit from the choice to eat a non-
nutritive carb substitute if that choice was made clear by strict labeling
standards.

However, in our imperfect world, infrastructure that can produce food based on
non-nutritive fiber has historically been used to rip off the most needy. In a
world with actual fake egg and "gutter oil" problems, creating industrial
processes to shape cellulose into something that looks like food is going to
have severe negative effects for a lot of people.

~~~
jrockway
I think times have changed. The poor in the US are not starving to death;
they're eating _too many_ calories.

~~~
TomGullen
> 3.8 million households were unable at times during the year to provide
> adequate, nutritious food for their children (2013)

[http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.ht...](http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.htm)

~~~
Shivetya
Well it would help if the government agency which manages the SNAP program
were held more accountable for their work. Enrollment tripled but costs
quadrupled or more. Like all large assistance programs. Participation rates
don't align very well with poverty or unemployment numbers on a state by state
look, meaning the system is obviously throwing money away.

also the USDA's own site has some nice graphs on the subject, but I cannot
find the questions being asked.

[http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-
assistance/foo...](http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-
assistance/food-security-in-the-us/frequency-of-food-insecurity.aspx)

~~~
greeneggs
"Participation rates don't align very well with poverty or unemployment
numbers on a state by state look, meaning the system is obviously throwing
money away."

Sorry, can you explain your logic here? Enrollment is handled by the states,
and procedures in different states are very different. (There are also federal
funding incentives for states to reduce enrollment.) You would expect
different states to have very different participation rates.

------
jbb555
I eat konjac noodles quite often as a lower carb alternative. They are not as
nice as "real" noodles but alright to have sometimes, specially if they are
served with highly flavoured food. They are not perfect though, so I'm happy
to see this if it improves the taste texture a bit.

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dao-
Capitalism fun story:

In order to counter skyrocketing calorie levels and the lack of fiber in
ordinary cheaply produced food, and following hysterical trends like being
afraid of fats or carbs or gluten, companies are busy inventing new food that
doesn't have any nutritional value.

Although this is basically just garbage manufactured into pseudo-food, with
some clever marketing it's bound to be a hit on the market, and people who
have no clue what they're doing will probably ruin their health in new
interesting ways.

At the same time, billions of people in the global lower class don't have
access to even barely decent food.

If this sounds insane to you, that's because it is in fact completely insane.

~~~
gruez
>people who have no clue what they're doing will probably ruin their health in
new interesting ways.

What makes you think that?

~~~
dao-
Because it has happened before, e.g. [http://www.today.com/health/breaking-
vegan-author-jordan-you...](http://www.today.com/health/breaking-vegan-author-
jordan-younger-confesses-dirty-secrets-clean-eating-t55086)

People jump into new lifestyle trends as if it were their new religion,
failing to balance their diet reasonably.

------
btrask
This is the total opposite of those futuristic meal pills, isn't it?

------
weavie
From what I can gather this will have virtually no nutritional content
whatsoever. I really do struggle to see how it could be considered a "health"
food.

Although food like kale does have 10x the amount of calories, I have a sneaky
suspicion you would be much better off eating that. The problem (in my view)
that is the cause of obesity is the tendency to eat foods that are more
processed rather than less..

~~~
Kiro
It's great when cutting. After a long period of bulking it's very easy to get
ripped with miracle noodles. You fill your stomach without getting the excess
energy in order to stay on a calorie deficit.

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khabaal
My first thought on it:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovfM7dvFto0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovfM7dvFto0)

~~~
jtheory
Ideally share the thought here in _some_ way; don't just give a mystery link.

------
dasboth
I may be missing something here, but isn't the fact that it's made of tree
pulp going to hurt the environment?

~~~
glenra
How would it hurt?

We get wood pulp from trees that are _farmed_ , not by clearcutting old-growth
rainforest. If we used less tree pulp, the obvious result would be that we'd
plant fewer acres of forest. If anything, finding more uses for wood _helps_
the environment as it's using a resource that literally _grows on trees_ in
lieu of other resource that don't.

------
kifki
I don't see the news here. Shirataki is quite popular and quite easily found.
I think it became popular with the Dukan diet.

~~~
masklinn
Shirataki are pure konjac, the article talks about adding wood fibers to
konjac to improve the texture and taste.

~~~
kifki
Thank you, I didn't know that. Do you think that there are key differences
between the two?

~~~
masklinn
Nothing more than what's in the article, namely that the mix is supposed to
mix taste and texture, which could help selling shirataki and more generally
konjac products.

------
duaneb
Kind of sad this _aims_ for low calorie (instead of low $/calorie), but still
very cool.

~~~
masklinn
> Kind of sad this aims for low calorie

That's not exactly new, there's a ton of low-calorie stuff out there.

> instead of low $/calorie

Obesity epidemics are caused by the over-availability and over-consumption of
low $/calorie.

~~~
duaneb
It just strikes me as incredibly unhealthy as a society to make food that is
designed to make money and... not actually feed people. So sue me for having
an opinion.

~~~
masklinn
> It just strikes me as incredibly unhealthy as a society to make food that is
> designed to make money and... not actually feed people.

Ok but _why_? Many in the western world literally suffer from an over-intake
of calories, why do ways to try and manage that (or ways to attain caloric
deficit) strike you as "unhealthy"? Do you also find calorie/weight management
courses "incredibly unhealthy"?

> So sue me for having an opinion.

That's an incredibly aggressive reply to what's at best questions and at worst
a difference of opinion.

~~~
duaneb
> Ok but why? Many in the western world literally suffer from an over-intake
> of calories, why do ways to try and manage that strike you as "unhealthy"?
> Do you also find calorie/weight management courses "incredibly unhealthy"?

I don't think this is going to help anyone lose weight any more than a
therapist, salads, lentils, etc. etc. I see this as a cool food engineering
experiment, but ultimately a waste of money.

> That's an incredibly aggressive reply to what's at best questions and at
> worst a difference of opinion.

I found your terse response ignoring the subjective content to be quite
aggressive in itself, especially considering the conciliatory tone of my
original message. If you're going to respond to an opinion, at least put some
effort into not being so argumentative.

~~~
masklinn
> I don't think this is going to help anyone lose weight any more than a
> therapist, salads, lentils, etc. etc.

Why are you putting it in opposition to those? Konjac is already being used
thus, and is more flexible than other options, providing e.g. noodles
("shirataki"), seafood substitute, gelling for culinary uses and fruit
jellies, etc…, surely more options and variety is a good thing?

~~~
duaneb
> surely more options and variety is a good thing?

Ahh, the mantra of modern society. Somehow the massive landfills aren't
considered a problem.

