The warnings may be gone, but this gut-wrenching additive isn’t!

FDA puts Big Food agenda first, your health dead last

It’s something you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy — severe abdominal cramping and embarrassing sudden diarrhea, sending you running off to the closest bathroom.

You might think that you’ve got a stomach bug, or even Montezuma’s revenge. But it could just be from eating those special “light” chips with the wonder additive, Olestra!

Yes, the fat-free fat that goes right through you is still around. And soon, it may be turning up in a whole lot of other foods.

You probably remember it from the ’90s. The bathroom jokes on the Late Show and the warning label on certain snack foods about “loose stools.”

But we’ve uncovered a little secret food manufacturers hope you won’t find out about: Olestra is making a comeback. One way beyond chips and snacks.

Only the FDA has pulled a fast one that could leave you rushing for a bathroom…

Which of these…drug or food additive?

Procter & Gamble spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing this “fat-free fat.” They weren’t even sure whether it was a drug or a food additive at first. But one thing they did know from the get-go is that Olestra keeps the body from absorbing some very essential vitamins.

And then as soon as it hit the market, there were a few things we all learned quickly.

First, there were the consumer complaints, thousands of them.

One group, Center for Science in the Public Interest, collected over 2,000 reports from people telling about horrible-smelling diarrhea and awful cramps after eating foods containing Olestra. The group says that P&G got over 20,000 similar consumer reports.

By now, the FDA knew about all the nasty details. So you might think Olestra would have been banned entirely.

Not a chance.

In fact, they kind of did the opposite.

The FDA’s next move — over a decade ago — was to remove the “loose stools” warning label entirely. Believe it or not, they said P&G could drop it since everyone was now aware of this little, ah, problem.

But the FDA’s gift basket to P&G wasn’t quite finished yet.

You see, after the dip in sales, since we didn’t all want to be dropping loose stools without warning, P&G needed to find new ways to make money on this baby.

So several years ago, P&G asked for permission to build a bigger market for this magic non fat…more than just chips and snacks.

So they wrote to the FDA asking to add Olestra to bagels, doughnuts, bread, cakes, taco shells, sweet rolls, waffles, frosting, yogurt and even mayo and granola bars! The list goes on and on.

P&G had made its own determination that all these would be “safe” to eat. The FDA had no objections, and presto, they were good to go.

So any day now these ‘Olestra-ized’ foods could be turning up in your supermarket – without the warning label.

Here’s what you have to watch out for:

On any product calling itself “light,” or “fat-free” check the ingredient list for Olestra or Olean (the brand name). Another tip-off would be foods with vitamins A, D, E and K, added in. (Those are the vitamins Olestra depletes.)

And don’t forget about those chips. The original Frito-Lay WOW chips have been renamed Lay’s Light, with the Olean logo on top of the package.

Make sure you know if you’re getting any Olestra in your foods. It might be good business for Procter but for you and me, it definitely isn’t worth the gamble.

Sources:
P&G letter to the Food & Drug Administration, January 20, 2010, accessdata.fda.gov

“The selling of olestra” Marion Nestle, Public Health Reports,” Nov-Dec, 1998, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov