And Now, In The Tradition Of Thalidomide - Olestra

“The most important development in the history of the food industry,” is how a Wall Street analyst once described a chemical with the bland name olestra.

Just imagine, fat-free potato chips, fat-free french fries, fat-free pie crusts. A dieter’s delight!

And a delight, too, for stockholders in Procter & Gamble, which markets olestra and anticipates a multibillion-dollar business if the Food and Drug Administration approves it for use in snack foods and ultimately for fast foods, shortening and other products.

Is olestra too good to be true?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes.

Since 1968 Procter & Gamble officials have been talking about olestra, which its scientists discovered when they were trying to figure out, ironically, how to squeeze more calories into a premature infant’s diet. They came up with sucrose polyester, an oily synthetic chemical made from table sugar and fatty acids. The resulting molecule is so large that intestinal enzymes and bacteria can’t digest it. Hence, it is noncaloric.

However, the fact that olestra is oily portends one of its problems: It captures, eliminates, and thus reduces the absorption of fat-soluble nutrients.

P&G acknowledged that problem early on and first proposed adding vitamin E to olestra, then said it would add back vitamins A and E. Now it recognizes that the problem is bigger and says it will add back all four fat-soluble vitamins: A, D, E, and K.

But olestra also reduces the absorption of fat-soluble carotenoids, which many researchers believe can help prevent cancer and heart disease. Moreover, eye experts believe that two carotenoids - lutein and zeaxanthin - help prevent macular degeneration, the most common cause of age-related blindness. In Procter & Gamble’s own studies, the amount of olestra that would be present in just one ounce of potato chips, eaten daily, reduced levels of lutein and other carotenoids by 50 percent.

Referring to the carotenoid-depleting effect, professors Walter Willett and Meir Stampfer at the Harvard School of Public Health have said, “The fact that Procter & Gamble wishes to proceed with the introduction of olestra into U.S. diets is appalling.”

Olestra’s effects on nutrients are invisible, imperceptible, and long term. More apparent are olestra’s gastrointestinal effects.

Olestra wreaks havoc in the intestines. Modest amounts eaten daily can cause everything from diarrhea to flatulence.

The least polite problem to talk about is what Procter & Gamble has called “anal leakage” - the tendency for olestra to seep out of the body and stain underwear. Anal leakage and other types of underwear staining are caused by the olestra formulations likely to be marketed. That is hardly the desired after-effect of eating a bag of chips!

Considering those problems - and others, most notably the potentially precancerous liver lesions that occurred in two P&G studies of laboratory rats - why is the FDA even considering approving olestra? For one thing, Congress and the food industry are putting tremendous pressure on the FDA to approve olestra.

Last June, the House Subcommittee on Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations held a hearing in which 11 industry witnesses - including two researchers who consult for P&G on olestra and one person who formerly worked in P&G’s olestra division - lambasted the FDA for moving too slowly to approve additives, especially those that “offer health benefits.”

Procter & Gamble has a special reason to press for immediate action: If olestra is not approved by January 25, 1996, a key patent will expire (it has already been extended, thanks to special legislation that P&G obtained from Congress).

Despite that Wall Street analyst’s opinion that olestra is even more important than sliced bread and other innovations, we suspect that, if olestra products are ever marketed, consumers will be thinking twice before they grab those olestra potato or tortilla chips. After all, there are already fat-free and risk-free products on the market.

We hope that FDA Commissioner David Kessler is not so busy fighting the tobacco industry that he will bow to the pressures demanding that olestra be approved. If he is indeed thinking of approving the first additive with negative nutritional value, we urge him to eat an ounce or two of chips daily for the next two weeks and then check his serum carotenoid levels … and his digestion.

xxxx

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Michael F. Jacobson and Myra Karstadt Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service