again, the innovative Japanese!

Monday, January 16, 2006 at 15:22 EST

TOKYO — Tablets made from miracle fruit, which makes sour things taste sweet, went on sale Sunday online. Mitsuharu Shimamura, a 31-year-old horticulturist based in Chita, Aichi Prefecture, established the world's first technology to make tablets out of the tropical fruit, native to West Africa, which contains a sweet-inducing protein called miraculin.

One pink-colored tablet is made of three miracle fruit berries, Shimamura said. When people eat or lick the fruit's red berries, any sour thing they eat or drink a minute later tastes sweet for about two hours. This is because the protein miraculin firmly binds to sweet receptor cells in a person's tongue when sour substances are present. The protein then transmits a false message to the brain, resulting in a strong, sweet taste. Information on the tablets is available at http://www.miracle-fruit.net/.
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Should we say goodbye to Aspartame and Splenda? I never liked the artifical medicinal taste of sugar substitutes like aspartame or Splenda or Sweet&Low. Ickkkk. I tried the stuff once and it made my coffee taste like bitter poison. I am skeptical about this new berry pill - how about you? It claims to have no side-effects but I am not thoroughly convinced by any claims the company makes. The name "mysterious fruit" isn't very assuring either...would you buy something that said, "suspicious fruit?" And tastes sweet for TWO hours...wouldn't that kill your tongue's natural sensory functions or tamper with your tastebuds in some way? Would you WANT a sweet lingering taste in your mouth for a whole two hours? Is this a diet pill, sugar substitute, or just novelty item? I don't understand this. Maybe someone else can shed some light on what it might do?

Nutritional Information
Heat quantity: 12.8kcal
Protein: 78.0mg
Fiber quality: 24.0mg
Lipid: 260.4mg
Carbohydrate: 2282.0m
Moisture: 394.1mgSodium: 1.4mg
(Vitamin) ビタビン C: 3.8mg
(Vitamin) ビタビン K 1: 0.368ug
Citric acid: 264.6mg
Malic acid: 58.5mg