[Fat substitutes in human diet].

Fat consumption in developed countries has increased steadily during this century reaching values higher than 40% of the daily total calorie intake. This situation has resulted in a high prevalence of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some types of cancer. The health agencies in these countries have made strong recommendations for the population to reduce dietary fat intake in order to reduce total fat intake to les than 30% of the total calories, with a maximum of 10% calories derived from saturated fats. The food industry has taken a very active role developing a number of low fat foods and opening a new area of products called fat substitutes in order to help the consumers reduce their fat consumption. One of these substitutes is a synthetic product obtained by reacting fatty acids from natural sources and sucrose. The product is a polyester of sucrose and has been named olestra. Olestra has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be used in snacks and fried chips. Due to its lipophilic nature olestra has a negative effect on the absorption of fat soluble vitamins and nutrients. However, this problem may be solved by supplementation of the nutrients affected. In addition, olestra may cause gastrointestinal effects such as abdominal cramping and stool softening. The Company that developed olestra claims to have solved this problem by modifying the composition of fatty acids of the product. Olestra is being marketed in the USA under the name of Olean.