A little misinformation can be a dangerous thing, but if you are positioned correctly when the misinformation hits the fan, you could actually make a few bucks.
A magazine's description of a
Hawaiian 'miracle diet food'
creates a boom in poi salesBy Betty Shimabukuro
bshimabukuro@starbulletin.comConsider the case of The Poi Co., which at the beginning of August began receiving e-mails -- a deluge of e-mails, actually -- from mainlanders seeking to buy poi as a diet aid.
President Craig Walsh says the company has received about 1,800 e-mail messages so far, mainly from Midwestern states such as Michigan and Illinois, and a large number from Florida.
This has translated into 100 to 115 poi orders daily on the four days a week that the company fills mail orders. "It's not amazon.com-type volume," Walsh says, but then again, consider that normal volume for his small company is 15 to 18 orders per day.
"It's been fun for us, and just exhausting."
The source of the poi boom is an article in Woman's World magazine, a tabloid sold at supermarket check-out stands. The Aug. 14 edition included a piece titled, "The Hawaiian Miracle Food that Speeds Up Weight Loss."
To lower cholesterol, lose weight and protect against cancer, the article advises, "start eating more like a Hawaiian!"
It summarizes research showing that people who included poi in their daily diets lost as much as 17 pounds in three weeks. This was in fact stated twice, which really got the attention of the dieting public.
"They all wanted me to tell them, 'How do I lose this weight? Is it a pill, is it a powder?' " Walsh says.
Closest he can figure, the writer was alluding to Dr. Terry Shintani's Hawaii Diet and its predecessor, the Waianae Diet, three-week regimens that call for strictly controlled meals heavy on whole foods.
Poi is a major player in the diets, but not necessarily the magic bullet.
Walsh says the people who lost 17 pounds tended to have started out weighing more than 300 pounds.
He's been trying to explain this to people ask about this "poi diet," but some people just hear what they want to hear.
One woman from New Jersey, he says, wanted poi, and a lot of it. "She didn't care what it was and how it tasted, all she cared about was losing 17 pounds."
Most of the orders are from "ladies from the Midwest," Walsh says, and they're buying everything from bags of poi au natural to The Poi Co.'s specialty products such as English muffins -- which are, by the way, fat-free -- and poi cheesecake -- which definitely is not. A 1-pound bag of poi costs $3.90; shipping (overnight UPS delivery) just about doubles the amount.
The Poi Co. (motto: "Poi to the world") also sells poi flavored with kiwi, banana, coconut, eggnog or cinnamon, for those squeamish about that basic poi taste. Orders are taken over the Internet, through the Web site, http://www.thepoicompany.com, which was publicized in the Woman's World article, touching off the avalanche.
Walsh says 10 to 15 percent of these first-time customers are reordering, and some are reporting back on the ways they've been eating their poi.
One woman is mixing it with crushed pineapple, Walsh says, another with yogurt.
"She says it really fills her up."
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