By KATELYN HAND
For years Americans have choked down cardboard-tasting snack foods in an effort to decrease their fat intake without sacrificing snacking habits. But now with the newly approved fat substitute, olestra, consumers can guiltlessly eat fat-free foods that come close to actually tasting like the real thing.
Since Americans are heavy snack consumers, olestra has been termed a breakthrough in helping lower daily fat intake. But it does this with some side effects and teaches us that indulging is okay — as long as it is fat-free.
According to the dietary guidelines of the food guide pyramid, fat consumption should be 30 percent or below of daily caloric intake. But “on average, 35-40 percent of caloric consumption comes from fat,” said Clayton Huber, dean of biology and agriculture.
“This will certainly be a real positive influence in reducing the amount of fat people consume,” Huber said.
For example, in a report done by Procter & Gamble Co., a regular serving of potato chips contains 10 grams of fat and 160 calories. With olestra this would be reduced to zero grams of fat and 70 calories. And since olestra tastes so much like fat, people finish feeling more satisfied rather than hungry after eating foods with other fat substitutes.
“Because it gives the sensation of fat it should help people eat less calories. They will feel full,” said Oscar Pike, associate professor of food science and nutrition.
But according to Rachel Jones, a nutritionist at the state Health Department, Americans have actually gained weight since fat-free products have been produced. The problem doesn’t seem to lie in the availability of nutritious food, but the fact that we just plain eat too much.
“Americans don’t eat small portions. Everything is super-sized,” Jones said.
Rachele Foushee-Beck, a nutritionist that teaches the slim for life classes for the American Heart Association, has found that when a food is low-fat people usually eat more. They then end up with a higher intake of fat than they would have with the regular sized portion of the food containing the normal amount of fat.
“If it’s fat free they tend to eat more. If you ate it like you should it would be fine,” Foushee-Beck said.
Ogden also agreed that when Americans have a snack attack, they can’t stop with just one potato chip. “If we could eat just one, we wouldn’t need (olestra),” he said.
After 25 years of testing involving over $250 million, olestra has been found to contain no toxic or adverse health effects. Studies involved seven different species, and more than 8,000 men, women and children.
But despite what Ogden called an “excessive amount of testing,” not all side-effects were diminished. For instance, the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, believing that it is a fatty acid, will attach to olestra and be flushed out of the body without being absorbed. This could cause a depletion in these vitamins which has alarmed some nutritionists. But Proctor & Gamble has asserted that anything lost would be counter-acted with fortification.
“Keeping equilibrium with vitamins by fortifying that product should be acceptable,” Pike said.
A more common problem associated with olestra is how it affects the gastrointestinal tract. Since olestra passes through completely unabsorbed it can cause some side effects such as diarrhea, which is not as harmful as it is inconvenient.
But the “laxative side effects only kick in when someone eats many times more than even an excessive eater would eat,” Ogden said. These same side effects could be experienced by changing to a high fiber diet, he said.
In order to make the public aware of this possible problem, a warning label similar to those found on high fiber cereals will be on foods containing olestra.
Unlike other artificial fat substitutes, olestra has the same palatable qualities that we love about fat, which satisfies our hunger like nothing else. “Fat satiates. Fat-free food without fat doesn’t satiate, but (olean) actually satisfies,” Pike said.
