Is konjac considered a carbohydrate or not? Can I eat it directly as a staple food? Konjac, scientifically known as Konjac (jǔ ruò, lifted if), is a perennial herb of the genus Konjac in the family Tennantaceae. The name of this plant sounds magical, just because eating konjac raw is poisonous (poisoning of the tongue, throat burning, itching, swelling, mainly the effect of alkaloids), but also so toxic derived from a number of legends about ghosts and gods. In fact, to safely eat konjac, you need to add alkali and heat long enough to remove the toxicity. When I was a kid, I never ate konjac, and I never even heard of it. The first time I heard of this stuff, or 10 years ago from the “Ghost Blows Out the Light – Ancient City” in the “corpse fragrance konjac” heard, of course, the novel described something purely fictional, but also borrowed from the magic of konjac. Back to the topic, what is the claim of konjac as food? The edible part of the konjac is mainly its bulbous tubers. And because it is toxic, we generally do not eat the tubers of the plant directly konjac, as we do with sweet potatoes and taro. Everyday we mention eating konjac, referring to foods made of konjac, such as konjac tofu, konjac strips, konjac shreds, konjac blocks, konjac knots, etc. These are generally common with shabu-shabu hot pot or spicy hot, and look quite like tofu or vermicelli. So where do these konjac products come from? In fact, they are derived from a raw material – konjac powder. How do you get konjac powder? It is the ball-shaped tubers of konjac dried, after peeling, slicing, drying, crushing, sieving and other processes to get the fine powder, called “konjac powder”, which is considered a coarse powder. And then a series of organic solvents and alkalis and other further purification, to get a more water-soluble powder, known as “konjac powder”. Daily to eat konjac food, the konjac powder (a treasure can be purchased, hands-on group of friends can try) with water, after heating and then cooling, you get a variety of konjac food, it can be said that, excluding water, konjac powder can fully represent the nutritional value of konjac. From the perspective of nutritional composition, konjac powder contains the most is dietary fiber, accounting for about 75% of the weight, mainly from glucose and mannose polymerization of glucomannan, a water-soluble dietary fiber, the efficacy of water-soluble dietary fiber, including weight loss, laxative, prevention and control of three high. Dietary fiber is one of the seven major nutrients, from the chemical composition of the judgment, is also classified as carbohydrates, but can not be directly broken down by the body’s digestive enzymes, like starch, so it exists independently of the carbohydrate class. And because some dietary fiber can be used by colonic bacteria, metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids can still be used by the intestinal mucosa cells, so the new view of the nutrition industry is that the energy supply coefficient of dietary fiber is uniformly set at 2kcal/g, half of the carbohydrate class (4kcal/g). Konjac powder still has carbohydrates and protein, both of which account for about 4.5% of the weight, the rest is some vitamins, trace elements and a minuscule amount of fat, and energy relationship can be ignored. Mint.com data (see below), the calorie formula is: 74.4 * 2 + 4.4 * 4 + 4.6 * 4 + 0.1 * 9 = 185.7 ≈ 186kcal. And the classic food nutrient table (see below), that dietary fiber does not provide energy, so konjac calories are: 4.4 * 4 + 4.6 * 4 + 0.1 * 9 = 36.9 ≈ 37kcal. And again, konjac Food can be a staple food. From the nutritional composition can be seen, konjac food is characterized by a large amount of water and dietary fiber, calories are very low, according to the dry weight of dietary fiber in the sort of words, konjac food is definitely the champion! So its usefulness is obvious: to partially replace the main food for weight loss patients, or mixed with the main food to eat together, can enhance satiety, prevent constipation, is a very suitable choice. For example, the head of the family, often eat konjac noodles and konjac rice, mixed with refined rice and white noodles to make up for the lack of dietary fiber disadvantages of these two. But to say that long-term completely konjac food as a staple food, or not safe, dietary fiber calories, although low, but also impede the absorption of essential nutrients such as protein, minerals, fat-soluble vitamins, essential fatty acids, increased risk of malnutrition unrelated to calories, weight loss does not have to go to extremes. Weighing all the pros and cons, it is recommended that the diet meal staples: 1, choose coarse grains, mixed beans, potatoes; 2, fine grains and konjac food mix and match as a staple; 3, fine grains and konjac food alternate days as a staple.