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Over 500,000 Americans die each year from heart disease. Around 34 million Americans are overweight. Taking in too much fat is a huge risk for many chronic diseases. Dietary fat accounts for about 37 percent of the total energy taken in by Americans. If the fat taken in is lowered, it will help lessen the chance of obesity. Lots of people find it hard to give up the taste of fatty foods. However, fat substitutes may be the answer to this problem. Fat substitutes might be able to help people to reach the 30 percent of calories from fat goals that were set by the American Heart Association.
Olestra is a fat substitute that looks like real fat, cooks like real fat and it gives food the taste of real fat. Its different from real fat because it is not soaked up or digested in the body. This means it gives no fat or calories to the diet. This is why Olestra molecule is larger than a fat molecule, it is not hydrolyzed by the body’s digestive enzymes, which means it will not be soaked up. Olestra will pass through the digestive system without changing.
The physical and chemical properties of Olestra are close to that of fat. Olestra is mostly fatty acids that come from common vegetable oils. Olestra can be used whereever fats are used.
Simplese is a fat substitute made of protein. It is a trademark of the Nutrasweet Company. Simplese is made with one of the following: cooked white eggs, milk, whey protein that are small, round, hydrated particles. These round particles are so small that a mouth can’t sence each of them. They are about 50 billion per teaspoon. These particles create a creamy taste and texture like fat. When its processing, the only changes to protein are the ones that normally happen in cooking.
Simplese can be used in many different kinds of food. Some of these foods are: ice cream, yogurt, salad dressing, and mayonnaise. You can’t use simplese to cook foods. If you try to do this, heat will cause the protein to turn into a form of gel and it will then loose its creamy quality. Using Simplese in place of fat in high fat products lessens calories by around 50 to 80 percent and the content of it is lessened by about 85 to 97 percent.
Stellar is a carbohydrated-based fat substitute. It is by A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company. Stellar is an acid-hydrolized starch that comes from corn. This starch is manufactured as a fine white powder. The white powder is blended at a high speed with water. This is done under high-pressure conditions so it will make a smooth, short-textured cream. This white powder has texture characteristics like those of shortening. The white cream is a bunch of very small particles in layers of water that is structural. This gel structure has a big surface area and a high amount of water inactiveness. This inactiveness generates the feel and texture of fat that is used in many kinds of low-fat or no-fat foods.
Stellar can be used in many kinds of food. Some of these foods are: margarine, soups, baked goods, salad dressing, and cheese products. Stellar has a bland flavor and this bland flavor mixes in well with many kinds of flavor systems that are used in foods.
Stellar stays sturdy over a large temperature range. Stellar is good to use in frozen foods and baked goods. Foods which are perpared with Stellar can endure moderate heat processing with not much loss of quality. However, Stellar can’t be used when frying foods. This is because Stellar looses its solubility and becomes unstable when at high temperatures. It is said that Sellar has a high shelf-life. The reason this is said is because it acts by keeping moisture in tight places, that does not change throughout the shelf-life. Stellar is only available for manufacturers.
Long term side effects from these fat substitutes are being studied now.
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