I am in a kitchen shared by bio-based startups in San Francisco looking forward to a chocolate chip cookie. Having been diagnosed with prediabetes a few years ago, I usually stay well away from sweet treats. But I have a secret weapon: a sachet of Monch Monch, a proprietary plant fibre-based drink mix that has been engineered to expand in my stomach like a kitchen sponge and soak up sugar in food, rendering it unavailable for early absorption.
The idea is that, locked in the “sponge”, a significant amount of the sugar will simply pass through. One gram of the product can absorb six grams of sugar according to lab tests by the startup behind it, BioLumen. Sucrose (table sugar), glucose, fructose and to a lesser extent simple starches can all be sequestered. Given there’s just over four grams in the sachet, I calculate it should – if it works – nicely nullify the sugar in my treat and give my gut a fibre boost to boot. “How do you eat food without paying the health price? We think we have figured out a way,” says Paolo Costa, co-founder and CEO of the company, as I mix the powder in the sachet with water and drink it.
