What food group are Shirataki Noodles?

  • Does anyone know?
    I do an exchange type program and I like these noodles and I think they'd be beneficial to my health & weight loss. But I'm not sure what food group to consider them. Vegetable or starch? I'm thinking vegetable since they are low in carbohydrate and it does come from a plant.
  • I count it as a vegetable for Medifast
  • If a serving has 15g or carb it would be a starch or a fruit.

    If it has 5g or less, it would be a vegetable.

    You can calculate exchanges from a nutrition label. It's simple math, but it does require a little rounding, because the numbers are approximations (if a piece of meat has 60 calories and 8g of protein you don't have to call it 1.125 protein exchanges - it's still just one protein exchange)


    (calories, grams of carbohydrate , grams of protein, grams of fat)

    Protein........ (55/ 0/7/3)
    Starch........ (80/15/3/0)
    Vegetable.... (25/ 5/2/0)
    Fruit........... (60/15/0/0)
    Dairy.......... (90/12/8/3)
    Fat............ (45/ 0/0/5)
  • If they are the tofu shirataki and you are eating a whole bag for 40 calories I would count them as half a starch so as not to shortchange your vegetable quota - and they are made from the starch of the root.
  • Technically they are vegetable, not a carb, even though they're in noodle form. There's another form, konnyaku, that's made out of the same stuff, but it's in a block form. Even though it has carbohydrate counts of 40 (or anything actually), there are many veggies that have high carb counts. The House brand is actually made out of Yam, which is a carb, so be careful which brand you're buying if you're looking to stay away from starches. Konnyaku/Shirataki have virtually no nutritional value (it's mostly water), so don't eat too much of it.
  • Quote: If a serving has 15g or carb it would be a starch or a fruit.

    If it has 5g or less, it would be a vegetable.

    You can calculate exchanges from a nutrition label. It's simple math, but it does require a little rounding, because the numbers are approximations (if a piece of meat has 60 calories and 8g of protein you don't have to call it 1.125 protein exchanges - it's still just one protein exchange)


    (calories, grams of carbohydrate , grams of protein, grams of fat)

    Protein........ (55/ 0/7/3)
    Starch........ (80/15/3/0)
    Vegetable.... (25/ 5/2/0)
    Fruit........... (60/15/0/0)
    Dairy.......... (90/12/8/3)
    Fat............ (45/ 0/0/5)
    Sometimes I'm such a ding bat. I knew that but thanks so much for posting it. I guess since this is one of those weird foods I was having issues figuring it out.