Home   Fat Replacers   Glossary of Fat Recplacers

Approved by the FDA in 1996, olestra is a versatile fat replacer that adds no fat or calories to foods. It gives foods a rich taste and creamy texture similar to ordinary fat because it is made primarily from fat, yet is not absorbed. Olestra is making healthier versions of people’s favorite foods possible.

Olestra is the first approved fat replacer which can replace the added fat and calories from fat in fried foods. Unlike other available fat replacers, olestra can withstand the high temperatures of frying. It gives foods the rich taste and creamy texture of ordinary fat because it is made primarily from fat. Olestra is not digested; it passes through the digestive tract but is not absorbed into the body. As a result, it has no fat and no calories.

Olestra is made from vegetable oils like soybean or cottonseed oil and table sugar through a multi-step process. The fats/oils we normally eat are called triglycerides which are made up of three fatty acid chains attached to a glycerol core. Triglycerides are broken down in the body by enzymes. Like triglycerides, olestra has fatty acid chains attached to a core, but with two important differences. First, the core is sucrose or sugar with six to eight fatty acids attached. Second, the enzymes that break down ordinary fats cannot break down olestra so it passes through the body unchanged.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved olestra in January 1996 for use in “savory snacks,” including potato chips, tortilla chips, cheese curls, corn chips and crackers. In determining that olestra is safe, FDA reviewed 25 years of research, including 150 studies involving thousands of people. Olestra is one of the most thoroughly tested ingredients ever approved by FDA. It is made by Procter & Gamble and marketed under the brand name Olean®.

Benefits

• Helps control fat and calories -- Reducing fat and caloric intake are important dietary recommendations of health authorities. Olestra provides no fat or calories. In a one-ounce serving of potato chips, for example, it can cut all the fat and slightly more than half the calories, with no taste trade-off.
  
  
• Provides great taste -- Olestra looks like fat, fries like fat, and tastes like fat. Snacks made with olestra taste as good as their full-fat counterparts.
  
  
• Increases variety of low-fat and fat-free snacks -- Olestra provides great tasting snacks which are low in or free of fat.
  
  
• Can be a valuable part of a healthy lifestyle -- Olestra does not replace the need for dietary moderation and balance, however, olestra is an additional tool to assist people in managing their intake of fat and calories. Studies have shown that products made with olestra are effective in helping people reduce the percentage of calories from fat in their diets, and that olestra snacks can easily be incorporated into a sensible overall healthy eating plan.
  
  
• Provides more consumer choices -- Research shows that Americans are continually searching for good-tasting, low-calorie, reduced-fat choices to consume as part of an overall healthy lifestyle. The availability of a variety of low-calorie ingredients, including olestra, allows food manufacturers to choose the most appropriate ingredient, or combination of ingredients for a given product -- the multiple ingredient approach. More ingredients mean more consumer choices.

Safety

Testing - The research program establishing the safety of olestra substantially exceeded testing generally required for regulatory approval. Approximately 100 animal studies and 40 human studies were reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration and its Food Advisory Committee. The scientific evidence includes more than 40 tightly controlled clinical studies in more than 5,000 men, women and children and an additional 55 sensory or preference studies in more than 20,000 people. FDA recently reaffirmed that there are “no significant adverse health consequences” associated with olestra consumption.

Effects on nutrients - Olestra does not affect the body’s stores of nutrients nor does it affect the uptake of water-soluble vitamins, minerals, proteins or carbohydrates. Only fat-soluble vitamins and carotenoids can be affected if eaten at the same time as the olestra containing food. Even heavy snackers only consume these products at one in six meals. Snacks containing olestra will have added fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) to compensate for possible effects on these vitamins. The effect of olestra snacks on carotenoids is within normal variations in carotenoid levels seen with the consumption of common foods, such as dietary fiber.

Digestive effects - Eating olestra snacks will not result in digestive effects in most people. Some people, mainly those frequently eating large portions of olestra snacks, may have abdominal cramping or changes in stool consistency. These mild and temporary effects are similar to those associated with eating foods such as fruits, vegetables and other high-fiber foods. With typical patterns of consumption, most people will not experience any digestive changes. In fact, ongoing research has found no difference in the incidence or severity of digestive effects between people who ate olestra snacks and those who ate full-fat snacks used as a control.

Dr Lawrence Cheskin of Johns Hopkins University, who conducted a recent olestra study (published in the Journal of the American Medical Association), stated, “If anything, there were more people with regular chips who had complaints. Whatever the explanation is for why people have gastrointestinal complaints, it doesn’t appear to be from the olestra chips.”

Labeling - In order to inform consumers of possible effects, olestra-containing snacks have an information label similar to those on high-fiber cereals. The label informs consumers eating olestra snacks that some people may experience temporary digestive effects and mentions that vitamins A, D, E and K have been added.

Future

Snack foods made with olestra have been tremendously popular with consumers (A national rollout program in early 1998). Products include Frito-Lay’s WOW!™ potato and tortilla chips (Lay’s®, Ruffles®and Doritos®), Nabisco’s Fat-Free Ritz® and Fat-Free Wheat Thins® crackers, and P&G’s Fat-Free Pringles®. In olestra products which are still in test market, half of the people who tried them repurchased them three or more times.

Olestra is suitable for a variety of additional products, including french fries, salad dressing, ice cream, margarine and cheese. It also could be used to replace some or all of the fat in shortening and cooking oil used at home or in the preparation of deep-fried commercial products. FDA approval will be necessary for these additional uses.

With the benefits of no fat, no calories and great taste, the future looks bright indeed for olestra’s use in a wide variety of healthier versions of people’s favorite foods.

References

Lawrence J. Cheskin, et al., “Gastrointestinal Symptoms Following Consumption of Olestra or Regular Triglyceride Potato Chips,” Journal of the American Medical Association, pp. 150-2, January 14, 1998.

Code of Federal Regulations, Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., Title 21, S. 172.867, 1996.

Federal Register, Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., Vol. 61, No. 20, 1996.

Astrup, A., Toubros S., Raben A. and Skov, A.R. The role of low-fat diets and fat substitutes in body weight management. What have we learned from clinical studies? Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 97(7):S82-S87, 1997.

Johnson, S.L., Cooper D.A., Stone, M., Seagle, H., Smith, S., Wyatt, F., Riccardi, K., Tran Z., Peters, J.C., Hill, J.O. Effects of covert substitution of olestra on self-selected food intake. FASEB Journal, 10, A550, 1996.

Sigmen-Grant, M. Can you have your low-fat cake and eat it too? The role of fat modified products. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 97(7):S76-S81, 1997.

Gershoff, S.N. Nutrition Evaluation of Dietary Fat Substitutes. Nutrition Reviews, 53(11):305-311, 1995.

Lawson, K.D., Middleton, S.J. and Hassall, C.D. Olestra, a non-absorbed, non-caloric replacement for dietary fat, A Review. Drug Metabolism Reviews, 29(3):651-703, 1997.

Sultie, J.W. and Ross, A.C. (eds). Assessment of the Nutritional Effects of Olestra. Journal of Nutrition, 127:15395-17285, 1997.

Birch, L.L., Johnson, S.L., Jones, M.B., Peters, J.C. Effects of a non-energy fat substitute in children's energy and macronutrient intake. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 58:326-333, 1993.

Kurtzweil, Paula, Taking the fat out of food. FDA Consumer, July-August, 1996, pp. 7-13.

Rolls, B.J., et al., Effects of olestra, a noncaloric fat substitute, on daily energy and fat intakes in lean men. American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition, 56:84-92, 1992.

Stern, J.S. and Hermann-Zaidins, M.G., Fat replacements: A new strategy for dietary change. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 92:91-93, 1992.

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