LOS ANGELES
You've got a yen for potato chips, but reading the label on the bag stops you cold.
That mere handful of crispy morsels contains 10 grams of fat and more than 150 calories. Your doctor would never approve. And neither would your bathroom scale.
So do you go without a crunchy treat? Or settle for baked chips, the ones that taste a little like cardboard but provide a satisfying crunch?
By the end of the month, everyone in the Los Angeles area will have a third choice: potato and corn chips fried in Olean, the brand name for olestra, an oil made of soybeans and cottonseed by Procter & Gamble.
Frito-Lay Wow! chips, test-marketed for the past two years in Colorado and three Midwestern cities, debuted on the West Coast last month in Spokane, Wash., and have recently started cropping up in Los Angeles supermarkets.
By summer, both Frito-Lay chips and fat-free Pringles potato chips, a P&G product, should be available nationwide. Nabisco is test-marketing Ritz and Wheat Thins crackers made with olestra in Indiana and Colorado but h as not yet announced plans to make them available nationally.
While some cholesterol-counters and dieters have been eagerly awaiting the local debut of the no-fat chips, others are leery, recalling the horror stories they've heard about olestra causing instant diarrhea, stomach cramps and other uncomfortable and potentially embarrassing side effects.
But for those worried more about curbing their fat intake than about possible stomach upsets, the labels on the new snacks are encouraging: for the potato chips, zero fat and 55 calories per }-ounce bag; and for the same size corn chips, 0.5 grams of fat (from the corn) and 70 calories.
The new chips taste just like the high-fat variety, but — because the molecules of the newly formulated fat are too big to be absorbed into the body—the fat "slides right through" and is eliminated, according to Frito-Lay.
"People can snack like a kid again and not worry about the fat," said Frito-Lay spokeswoman Lynn Markley.
But the fat is exactly whahips carry a warning: "Olestra may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools."
And he calls selling snack foods that, in some people, have caused acute indigestion, flatulence and diarrhea "the food industry's version of a fraternity prank."
"One woman likened (her reaction to olestra-fried chips) to childbirth," Jacobson said. "One man said he felt he had a softball stuck in his gut."
More than 2,000 people in Midwest test markets for the new Frito-Lay products have reported to P&G or CSPI that they suffered gastrointestinal upsets after eating the chips. At least 18 people suffered such severe symptoms they went to the hospital, and o thers sought medical attention from their own doctors, Jacobson said.
Some people are sensitive to olestra, and if they suffer an adverse reaction, they shouldn't continue to eat chips fried in the new fat, said P&G spokeswoman Sydney McHugh. But reports of illness have been few compared with the number of people who've cho wed down on the chips, she said.
A report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association backs up her contentions. JAMA reported that of 1,123 moviegoers given chips to eat—half ate Frito-Lay Ruffles regular chips, half ate Frito-Lay Wow! Ruffles chips made with olestr a — those who ate the olestra chips actually suffered less diarrhea, gas, abdominal pain and cramping than people who ate the regular potato chips.
"Complaints have been less than one per 20,000 servings," McHugh said. "Twenty-eight million servings have been consumed to date, saving 280 tons of fat and 2.3 billion calories (consumed). Forty percent of people in our test markets bought th e product (after trying it), and half of those repurchased three times or more."
OK, so some people don't have gastrointestinal problems from the chips. But what about the FDA's conclusion that olestra-fried chips deplete the body's supply of vitamins A, D, E and K and such nutrients as carotenoids, which are found in fruits and vegetables and that scientists believe help prevent cancer and heart disease?
To make up part of the difference, the chips are fortified with vitamins, but P&G's own studies show that eating 1 ounce of olestra-fried chips a day can deplete levels of carotenoids by at least 50 percent over two or three weeks.
Markley, who snacks on the chips herself, said Frito-Lay wouldn't market the chips unless they were perfectly safe for most people to eat.
"We're not in the business of making people sick," she said.
Although Jacobson recommends that chip lovers who want a low-fat treat simply eat baked chips, he admits an olestra-fried snack now and then probably won't cause any lasting damage to anybody.
"If somebody eats it just once a month or once a year, the nutrient loss won't matter," he said. "But if you eat it once a day, you're going to be losing significant nutrients. The result is, 20 years later, you'll be at an increased risk for cancer or heart disease."
Nobody's arguing that people should scarf up olestra chips instead of eating balanced meals.
"If potato chips are your only vegetable of the day, then you're in trouble, whether they're made with olestra or not," said Dr. Ronald E. Kleinman, chief of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and a member of the FDA advisory committee that recommended olestra be approved for use. "But a snack once in a while with olestra is OK."
While some dieters have been waiting for two years—since the FDA approved olestra for inclusion in savory snacks—to buy the no-fat chips, Markley points out that they're not designed to help people lose weight.
"This is not the magic bullet," she said. "This is just to put a little fun in your life."
In test markets in Indianapolis; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Grand Junction, Colo.; and Eau Claire, Wis., the Frito-Lay chips have been a hit with snackers. So many people are clamoring for the new chips that one supermarket in Cedar Rapids ships bags of chips by mail to customers in outlying areas.
"People from Kentucky, where they aren't sold, drive 100 miles or more and load up their cars with crates of them," said Mark Pearly, assistant manager of the Cub Food Store in Indianapolis.
Pearly's doctor recently told him he had high cholesterol and a potential heart problem, and the olestra chips have helped him stay on a prescribed low-fat diet.
"Once I tried 'em, I was like, 'Holy cow, this stuff is great!"' he said. "For me, they're a lifesaver."
That initial reaction, Markley said, is what has made foods made with olestra successful in test market areas. Many people have heard dire warnings about olestra and are afraid to try it.
"But once they taste it," she said, "they want more." Publication Date : 1998-03-10
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