Can you say Olestra?

Proof of long term health effects? Anyone? Anyone?

"may cause involuntary anal leakage" = poison, IMO**

My, what an interesting usage of the word poison.

Do you know what Olestra is? Do you know how it works? Do you know why some people get diarrhea after eating it?

Olestra is an artificial fat. Tastes just like the real thing, because it is the real thing -- at least to your tastebuds and nose. The difference is that it's a fat's kind of fat. It's huge, biologically and chemically speaking. In fact, it's so big that our bodies cannot process it -- it cannot be absorbed by the intestines into the blood stream. Instead it passes on through the entire digestive tract.

Of course, that's the problem and why people have "anal leakage" (I'm amazed they didn't come up with a better term, because I sure as hell don't want to risk that!). The colon really isn't designed to deal with pure fat. And if you've ever tried to pick something up after having fat on your fingertips you know what happens -- things are slippery. Well, it's now in your colon along with other wastes, so there's a chance it's just going to "slip" right out... and yes, ewwwww.

I'm not a big fan of Olestra myself. I've had some chips made with it, and no issues here, but it is a side effect that I don't want to particularly risk. But that doesn't make it poison.

Honestly, I'm amazed someone didn't try and bring up sacchrine (Equal), aspartame (Nutrasweet), or sucralose (Splenda). And yeah, they're safe too unless you decide to eat a few thousand times a normal dosage in a day (hint - there's not a helluva lot else that's safe at that point either).