Kelsey Kinney: All right, very good question. That stuff sucks up a lot of water. So I’m not sure how much water you tried to mix it in with, but that would be my first suggestion is to really just add a lot more water because you actually need to drink a ton of water. Let’s say you took a pill of it or something, you would need to drink a lot of water to make sure that it actually has room to expand. So add more water would be my first recommendation. My second would be to not only add a little bit more water, but then add the mixture to something like a smoothie that’s a little bit thicker in its texture anyway. It won’t be as difficult to chug down if you are drinking something that’s a little bit thicker in the first place. Whereas when you try to drink that powder mixed in a little bit, or even a lot, of water, it can still be pretty viscous and difficult to drink.
The other thing to think about too is you may have seen some of those, when I first saw these packages in the grocery store I was like I can’t even believe this is a thing. And it sounds so unhealthy. But what it is, there’s an American brand or I think it’s American, but it’s called Miracle Noodles. But really it’s just a noodle made of glucomannan essentially. And you can find them in Asian grocery stores that aren’t called Miracle Noodles. They’re called Shirataki noodles, and basically it’s just the fiber, the soluble fiber with water, most of the time. There are flavored ones. So I would suggest avoiding that. But if you find one that’s just the root and water and that’s basically it, you can certainly try those as a way to get glucomannan into your diet. A lot of people say, I actually haven’t tried them yet but I’m sort of curious to do so. But a lot of people say that there’s a really funky smell when you open the package, but that if you rinse it properly or even blanch it very quickly that that smell issue goes away. And you can imagine if you’ve had glucomannan powder mixed with water that it’s like this kind of gummy sort of texture, which works for things like cold salads with a lot of like Asian type of flavors. So I think it probably can be good. Again, I haven’t tried it personally yet, but it’s on my list.
Because I have Asian markets close to me, I’d probably try to find it there just because I don’t know how close to the real thing the Miracle Noodle is. I’m not sure if it has a lot of other ingredients. But if it doesn’t, then I’m not opposed to that either. The package will look ridiculous. It’s going to say gluten-free, 0 calories, high fiber, all of these health claims, which actually are all pretty much true. But it just looks crazy and you’re like, this can’t be true. This is ridiculous. So ignore the claims and everything even though they actually are pretty accurate. And just know that it is a way to get glucomannan into your diet in a way that might be a little bit more appealing than just taking it, the powder with water or incorporating that into a smoothie or something. It just is, for some people, a little bit easier. So hopefully that helps. Try it out. Either way, whether you’re just adding a little bit more water, adding it to a smoothie, or giving that Shirataki pasta or noodles a try.