ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 25, 1996 TAG: 9601250046
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: SHANKAR VEDANTAM KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
PROCTER & GAMBLE spent 25 years - and $200 million - developing olestra, but the side effects have some people worried.
Olestra, a fat-free substitute for conventional fat, is within reach of America's grocery shelves, seductively dangling the promise of guilt-free snacking.
While fans praised the Food and Drug Administration's approval Wednesday of olestra as the agency's gift to thinner cooking, critics said the product causes gastrointestinal problems and robs the body of nutrients. America seems ready to lap it up, though, spurred on by doctors who worry about widespread obesity and by cultural mores obsessed with slimness.
``It promises to change the way Americans think about fat-free snack foods,'' said Gordon Brunner, senior vice president for research and development at Procter & Gamble, which developed the product.
Olestra will be sold under the brand name ``Olean'' to companies that make snacks. Customers can expect grocery aisles to carry such products as potato chips, tortilla chips and crackers cooked with Olean and marked with a special logo.
Olestra eventually may be used to make sweet snacks like cookies and brownies, although Wednesday's FDA approval is limited to salty snacks. Americans eat more than five billion pounds of snacks every year, according to the company.
Chemically speaking, olestra is fat with a difference. It is made in such a way that our digestive systems can't absorb it. It is therefore excreted undigested, leaving the body with less gooey fat, but also causing underwear stains and gastric trouble along the way.
While the FDA's approval after an eight-year investigation endorsed olestra's safety, it came with a caveat to customers:
``Olestra may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools in some individuals, and inhibits the body's absorption of certain fat-soluble vitamins and nutrients,'' said FDA Commissioner David Kessler. ``There are real effects in some people. They may be annoying. ... But we do not believe they are medically significant.''
Under the terms of the approval, Procter & Gamble will add vitamins A, D, E and K to olestra, which should prevent it from stealing those nutrients from the body.
But the fat-substitute also reduces the body's absorption of carotenoids, nutrients found in carrots, sweet potatoes, leafy green vegetables and some animal tissue: The FDA has asked the company to monitor consumers for adverse health reactions.
``Procter & Gamble is going to replace several of those vitamins, but it's not going to replace carotenoids,'' said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington consumer group. ``It will increase heart disease, cancer and blindness.''
``It certainly causes diarrhea, cramps and other problems in the short run,'' he said. ``It's crazy to add it to the food supply.''
Procter & Gamble dismisses such fears. Olestra has taken the company some 25 years - and $200 million - to develop, and its scientists say it is safe, and that the potential benefits from reducing fat in Americans' diets will far outweigh any side effects.
``While this new ingredient is not a panacea, our research suggests it may make it easier for people to reduce fat in their diets,'' said John Foreyt, director of the Nutrition Research Clinic at the Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, at a Wednesday teleconference organized by the company.
``Olean does all the glorious things fat does in food,'' said Marilyn Harris, a chef and author of cookbooks, who worked with the company in testing olestra.
Procter & Gamble says olestra-made products taste just as good as ordinary fat and that even experts cannot tell the difference. Fat is essential to the foods most people love.
Experts believe we enjoy these foods probably because of evolution, which rewarded animals for finding scarce food. But while lots of cheetahs may have died of starvation, lots of Americans die from heart disease and clogged arteries caused by obesity. Food as life-saver has become food as killer.
Brunner said he could not say when the products would actually become available, but said they would be test-marketed in cities ``in the coming months.'' Procter & Gamble's own brand of chips, Pringle, will be made with Olean, he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: 2 charts by KRT.by CNB