Olestra
Technically speaking, it was to be the something that was supposedly going to change the world. Stock analysts even proclaimed it as being the "single most important discovery in the history of the food industry", and would generate over a billion dollars annually in sales becoming
Procter and Gambles, the creators, best selling product. What is not to like about a product which replaces the fat content in previosly named junk food such as potato chips? Apparently quite a bit.
Olestra was first invented in 1968 as a way of increasing an infants intake of fat. This is when they stumbled upon a special chemical
which was actually the hexa, hepta, and octa-esters of fatty acid of sucrose. These molecules are so big and fatty, that the body cannot be metabolized by the body by enzymes and bacteria in the intestine, and as a result is not digested or absorbed. Instead of increasing fat intake, this chemical replaced it.
Almost 30 years later, Olestra was......
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