Fat-Free "Fat"

Whatever happened to Olestra? By Sally Wadyka for MSN Health & Fitness

The year was 1998, and fans of greasy, fried snack foods had reason to rejoice: Wow! brand potato chips and Fat Free Pringles hit the market, advertising full-fat taste without any of the fat calories. How was this snack food miracle made possible? The secret was a new ingredient called Olestra, a non-fat cooking oil. The so-called “fat replacer” functions in a similar way to high-fat, artery-clogging cooking oils and, because it doesn’t break down at high temperatures, it can be used to fry things—like potato chips—without adding any fat calories to the tasty snack.

Olestra is made from vegetable oil (a real fat), but it’s then processed to create a no-fat taste-alike. During the transformation, Olestra becomes a substance that can’t be broken down by the stomach’s digestive enzymes. That means that rather than being digested, the product—and all of its potential fat and calories—gets excreted. In other words, they leave the body before they’d have a chance to make you gain weight.

But, as multitudes of snack-crazed consumers soon found out, the miracle ingredient carried with it the risk of some very messy side effects. Chip eaters—ecstatic at the thought of being able to eat an entire bag both guilt- and fat-free—started reporting bouts of diarrhea, abdominal cramps and even fecal incontinence. Apparently, food that passes through the body undigested can lead to such issues. And while the ingredient had been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as safe to eat, all products containing it were required by the FDA to carry this warning label:

This product contains Olestra. Olestra may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools. Olestra inhibits the absorption of some vitamins and other nutrients. Vitamins A, D, E, and K have been added.

Jokes about “anal leakage” aside, the hype over Olestra eventually subsided. And the ingredient faded from view even more thanks to two subsequent moves: In 2003, the FDA dropped the warning label requirement, meaning you’d have to actually read the ingredients list to know if a product contained Olestra. According to a statement issued by the FDA at the time, the agency had deemed that the warning was “no longer warranted.” Their rationale for this decision was based on a review of studies showing that Olestra caused only infrequent, mild gastrointestinal distress and that consumers were already aware of these possible side effects.

Then in 2004, the Wow! line of snack products was rebranded. Instead of being lumped together under that Olestra umbrella, the products are now called Lay’s Light potato chips, Ruffles Light potato chips, Pringles Light, Doritos Light, and Tostitos Light tortilla chips.

And that’s when the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, got involved. The same people who brought you the bad news about movie popcorn and Chinese food took it upon themselves to gather and send reports from hundreds of consumers detailing adverse reactions to Olestra to the FDA.

“When Olestra chips were first introduced, the companies really advertised that it was in the products, but when the labeling changed, they suddenly tried to remove every bit of evidence of Olestra,” says Michael F. Jacobson, director of CSPI. And many consumers felt tricked. In response, CSPI threatened to sue Frito-Lay and Proctor & Gamble. After an out-of-court settlement, the chip makers agreed to advertise the ingredient more prominently. On the front of the packaging, the chips declare that they are made with Olean (the Proctor & Gamble’s brand name for Olestra) and then Olestra appears in the ingredients listing on the back. “It’s fair to consumers that at least they’re warned,” says Jacobson, “but I still don’t think it should be on the market at all.”

Not everyone agrees that Olestra is any more of a dietary evil than real fat. “Potato chips are the No. 1 snack food in America, so eating them with less fat and fewer calories could be a good thing,” says Dr. Kristine Clark, director of sports nutrition at Penn State University.

As for Olestra’s side effects, Clark says: “Overeating anything can cause gastric upset, so knowing that overeating Olestra chips can cause upset may not be a bad thing. If anything, I think regular potato chips should carry a warning label, and it should read, ‘Caution: Extremely high in fat and sodium and not good for your health in general.’”