Olestra and and other substitutes

GostHacked · June 22, 2011

More and more, the additives and substitutes we put in our food end up causeing more issues than they solve.

Olestra, was to be the best thing to replace the fat in many products, most of it junk food (junk food means there is little to no nutritional value at all).

Canada banned Olestra in 2000 it seems. That decision was not welcomed by many.

http://cei.org/op-eds-and-articles/canada-misses-fat-chance-henry-miller-op-ed-national-post

By Henry I. Miller
July 25, 2000

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Published in the National Post (Canada)

July 25, 2000

Canadian regulators' decision to ban the fat substitute olestra runs against both scientific evidence and consumers' health, writes Henry I. Miller

Most North Americans are concerned about the health effects of too much fat. We cling to the hope that somehow, we can have it both ways: as many chips and as much ice cream as we want without suffering any consequences.

Now, there's good news on the fat front. For almost five years, American consumers have wielded a formidable weapon in the war against dietary fat--a cooking oil, called olestra, that adds no fat or calories to food. But the good news stops at the Canada-U.S. border. In Canada, olestra is banned.

Olestra is simply a molecule of table sugar, linked to soybean or cottonseed oil, that is too large for the body to absorb or digest. After analyzing copious data and consulting outside experts, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration became convinced of olestra's safety and approved the Procter and Gamble product for use in chips, crackers and other 'savoury snacks' in 1996. Since then, various products fried with olestra have been made by about a dozen companies

Eleven years later studies in the US show Olestra actually makes you fatter, because it prevents the body from absorbing some nutrients and tricking your body in what it thinks it's getting based on what you are tasting.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/eating-fake-fat-makes-real-fat-olestra-study/story?id=13893613

But overeating may not be the only reason why fat substitutes make you pack on the pounds. Researchers suspect that fake fats actually mess with our body's ability to digest and metabolize food, making us more likely to retain weight from what we eat.
"Our bodies make predictions on what to prepare to digest based on taste and how food feels in our mouth," Swithers said. When something tastes sweet or fatty, our body gears up to digest a high density of calories, stimulating the metabolism and triggering a chain of hormonal secretions to process the fat, calories, and nutrients.

I stay away from anything 'diet' related. I've never tried foods with Olestra/Olean so not sure how the taste is, but for things like aspartame, I simply cannot stand the taste of any product that has aspartame in it, same with Acesulfame potassium. I cannot stand the taste of it. Even after I bought a drink or something and not realizing the aspartame or Acesulfame potassium, is present, I can taste it. It's horrible!!

All these substitutes end up tricking the body to metabolize them in different ways than what it should be doing. Or not metabolize them at all. I'd rather have stuff with real sugar, not sugar free substitutes, or high concentrated glucose-fructose (aka what they want to call corn sugar).

The body can deal and process natural occurring fats in foods. The body can't deal with these substitutes and sometimes it has really nasty side effects.

Edited June 22, 2011 by GostHacked

Sir Bandelot · June 22, 2011

Fat is not 'bad', only things in excess are bad. In fact, fat is vital and the right proportions of saturated, poly and mono fats contribute to cardio and brain health.

Give me only natural food, grown in the good earth. In the dirt. Any 'gook' made in a factory or pharmaceutical lab is anathema to me. Everything the human body needs can be found already in nature.

Here is an anecdote for you-

At my workplace, a place where you'd think people are smart enough to know whats good for you, I was told about some kind of health food store, "The Green Room". The glowing report that these dysfunctional mattresses gave me led me to believe it was worth checking out. When I got there, I was appalled. Everything was either a pill, powder or tincture. Everything in plastic bottles on the shelf, nothing required refrigeration. Nothing in it was green at all.

I went back and said, "You honestly believe there's something good in there, with all the powders? What's wrong with a red pepper, carrot or piece of fruit?" They looked at me, utterly astonished. Then one of them quipped, "Haven't you heard about the food? They've farmed the soil to the point that it's become nutrient deficient."

These are the same people who regularly take these "treatments" to clean their colons out. The concept of getting roughage, fiber from real food utterly eludes them. They seriously need to get un-plugged

AngusThermopyle · June 22, 2011

Couldn't agree more. We grow a lot of our own stuff and it tastes so much better than what we can buy. As far as the soil being depleted, that just isn't true. If proper practices are followed and crops rotated the soil will renew its nutrient base, you should let these bozo's know about that. From what I've seen many people follow these trends based more on a fad sort of mentality rather than from a basis founded in fact.

We plant in the soil using sheep and cattle manure as an amendment, we also grow in containers. For container growing I like to mix up my "super soil". This consists of Pro Mix HP, worm castings, bat guano, blood meal, bone meal, dolomitic lime, perlite, fulmic acid and a touch of epsom salts. With this mix I get fantastic growth rates and enhanced production while eliminating the need for artificial fertilizers. We also brew organic "tea" in a Rubbermade garbage can. This mostly consists of high grade manure with guano, fish meal and worm castings added to it, makes a great feeding additive to the soil mixes. As an added bonus I also mix desulfated Molassis (sp?) with water as it provides more natural benefits.

In the off season we run a mix of DWC (deep water culture) and flood and drain, as well as container growing. We've had great success using T5 Sunblasters for light but also run a couple of 600W digital dimmable ballasts that accept both MH and HPS bulbs while keeping consumption to acceptable levels.

Although I can't guarantee that what I grow is better than what is availlable in this store that was recommended to you I'd be willing to bet it is. The added bonus is that it all tastes so darn good, and we have the assurance of knowing that its all 100% organic.

WIP · June 23, 2011

More and more, the additives and substitutes we put in our food end up causeing more issues than they solve.

Olestra, was to be the best thing to replace the fat in many products, most of it junk food (junk food means there is little to no nutritional value at all).

Canada banned Olestra in 2000 it seems. That decision was not welcomed by many.

http://cei.org/op-eds-and-articles/canada-misses-fat-chance-henry-miller-op-ed-national-post

Eleven years later studies in the US show Olestra actually makes you fatter, because it prevents the body from absorbing some nutrients and tricking your body in what it thinks it's getting based on what you are tasting.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/eating-fake-fat-makes-real-fat-olestra-study/story?id=13893613

I stay away from anything 'diet' related. I've never tried foods with Olestra/Olean so not sure how the taste is, but for things like aspartame, I simply cannot stand the taste of any product that has aspartame in it, same with Acesulfame potassium. I cannot stand the taste of it. Even after I bought a drink or something and not realizing the aspartame or Acesulfame potassium, is present, I can taste it. It's horrible!!

All these substitutes end up tricking the body to metabolize them in different ways than what it should be doing. Or not metabolize them at all. I'd rather have stuff with real sugar, not sugar free substitutes, or high concentrated glucose-fructose (aka what they want to call corn sugar).

The body can deal and process natural occurring fats in foods. The body can't deal with these substitutes and sometimes it has really nasty side effects.

The first time I heard about Olestra was back in the 90's on Rush Limbaugh's show...believe it or not...Blimpbaugh was celebrating the news of this great new invention that would allow pigs like him to eat as much junk food and never get fat...based on his test study of one, it doesn't appear to be working! At the time, Limbaugh was frothing about meddling science review panels that were delaying the introduction of this miracle food because of the concern that Olestra would interfere with absorption of other vital nutrients besides fat.

I've read a number of articles that say artificial sweeteners have a similar problem as olestra -- it actually increases cravings for sugar. Just goes to show that anything we eat that is radically different from natural foods, whether it's hydrogenated oils, refined sugars, artificial sweeteners, and others mentioned here, always have negative effects that are worse than their supposed benefits.

Pliny · June 24, 2011

The first time I heard about Olestra was back in the 90's on Rush Limbaugh's show...

You listen to Rush Limbaugh? Who are you trying to fool?

I've read a number of articles that say artificial sweeteners have a similar problem as olestra -- it actually increases cravings for sugar. Just goes to show that anything we eat that is radically different from natural foods, whether it's hydrogenated oils, refined sugars, artificial sweeteners, and others mentioned here, always have negative effects that are worse than their supposed benefits.

Yep. Despite what Rush Limbaugh says, I have used butter and not hydrogenated margarines since the seventies. I didn't listen to medical science about heart healthy margarines. It seems all those margarines haven't helped to remove heart disease from being number one on the "causes of death" list.

And now they are discouraged. It's just an example of science that becomes political. It seems the preface, "Scientific study shows..." is enough to get a few skeptics parroting findings and lobbying politicians to "inform" the public.

I avoid aspartame, if you have read the story of it you probably would too, but will tolerate some sucralose, although I prefer to avoid foods with sugars, sweeteners and simple carbohydrates as much as possible. I eliminated dairy for about five years in my diet due to a joint problem - since disappeared - and can now tolerate some cheese and creams without any problems.

My food pyramid (now called a "food plate" or something) has a few things missing on it.

Everyone is different and should tailor their diet to their needs - Nutrition has been a rather neglected facet of allopathic medicine in the past. That may or may not have been a good thing. The codex alimentarius shows interest in nutrition but is it more political than scientific. It certainly tends to lump everyone under the same rules when every individual should be allowed to, based on their own needs of how their body fares, develop a diet for themselves - science is a tremendous help in doing that but science but politicians, Wall street and skeptics need to keep their distance in their passion to "help" and bring us what is the latest and greatest for the common good.

bloodyminded · June 26, 2011

I'm supposed to avoid coffee and alcohol because of my elevated acid reflux problem. But I'm aware that cutting out such staples will negatively affect my good health in other ways.

GostHacked · June 28, 2011

Although I can't guarantee that what I grow is better than what is availlable in this store that was recommended to you I'd be willing to bet it is. The added bonus is that it all tastes so darn good, and we have the assurance of knowing that its all 100% organic.

I guess that's another thread altogether. Genetically modified foods. Organic does taste better, part of the reason I want to get house out in the country and start growing some of my own food. GM foods are also having some effects on us that we should not be experiencing otherwise.