Olean: The Fake Fat

By:
Lynn Grieger

If you were cutting down on fats, which would you choose: a bag of chips containing 150 calories, or the brand that contains only 70? The answer's simple: The lower-calorie chip wins hands down. The secret is Olean. But before you choose foods that contain Olean, this is what you need to know.

What is Olean?

Olean is a man-made fat that tastes almost the same as other types of fats. It looks like fat and cooks like fat. Anyone can tell the difference in taste between a regular potato chip and a baked chip, but you'll be hard-pressed to notice any significant difference between foods containing Olean and their unaltered versions.

Our body's digestive enzymes don't work on Olean. The Olean molecule is too large for our enzymes to dismantle, meaning that it is neither digested or absorbed. Instead, it passes out of our body in our stool, without contributing any fat or any calories.

The Downside

Olean also decreases the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and other nutrients. Vitamins A, D, E and K (the fat-soluble vitamins) are added to all food products that contain Olean to offset the effects of these losses. But there are other fat-soluble nutrients in foods, such as carotenoids, that are important for health yet cannot yet be added to foods. Some researchers feel that Olean may cause depletion of these essential nutrients if consumed in large amounts.

Olean may also cause intestinal complaints such as gas, cramping, nausea or diarrhea. These side effects happen with any substance that our body can't fully digest, especially if we consume it in large amounts. A recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine looked at over 3000 people who ate one ounce of potato chips each day. Some chips contained Olean, and others the typical fat found in your average potato chip. Thirty-eight percent of the participants reported loose stools or nausea when they ate either type of chip, with basically no significant difference in symptoms between people who ate the chips containing Olean and the regular chip. It's interesting to note that people who thought they were eating the chips containing Olean were 50 percent more likely to have intestinal complaints. Chalk it up to the power of believing.

How to Use It

Products that contain Olean still contain calories. Because they're fat free, they do have significantly less calories, but you can still gain weight if you overeat any of these foods. Since Olean is primarily found in snack foods, it makes sense to limit portions of these foods since they don't provide significant amounts of nutrients.

The bottom line? Foods that contain Olean contain no fat, and therefore are much lower in total calorie content. If you don't overeat these snack foods, you probably won't have any side effects and you may in fact lose weight. However, effective and long-term weight control involves more than just eating a lower-fat snack food: Exercise and an overall healthy diet are key.

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