'Miracle Fruit' Yields Sweets for Dieters

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/inte...-Miracle-Fruit....


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 22, 2005
Filed at 2:48 p.m. ET

TOKYO (AP) -- A Japanese cafe started serving up berries that make sour

desserts sweet Tuesday, offering dieters the chance to indulge in
snacks
without piling on the calories.

The desserts at the Miracle Fruits Cafe in Tokyo contain almost no
sugar
and are unbearably sour, but come with a berry from the Synsepalum
dulcificum plant -- also known as miracle fruit -- which make the sour
desserts sweet to the taste, according to Namco Ltd., who runs the
cafe.

''You could eat a whole lemon and it would taste sweet,'' Namco
spokesman Yuko Tsukui said of the berries, which accompany desserts on
the cafe's menu -- all of which have less than 100 calories, or
one-fifth that of normal cakes and puddings.

The berry's juices affect the tongue for about 30 minutes to an hour
and
can be washed away with hot tea or water, Tsukui said.

Found in Western Africa, miracle berries contain the protein miraculin,

which stimulates the tongue's taste buds and makes sour food and drinks

taste sweet.

Though discovered centuries ago, miracle berries have not been widely
marketed because they are easily perishable. But a Japanese supplier
recently developed a way to freeze-dry the fruit, allowing for a stable

supply of the berries, Tsukui said.