The first fat substitutes were aimed mainly to helping people
lose weight. But the fat substitutes of the future will offer
more ways to good health.
Casimir Akoh, a food science professor with the University
of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences,
is developing fat substitutes designed with added health
benefits.
Creating New Fat
Substitutes
Akoh modifies the fat to enhance the way human bodies absorb
it. He is also creating new low-calorie fat substitutes called
structured lipids. He does so by exchanging properties of one
fatty acid for those of another.
He uses enzymes to blend long-chain fatty acids, like those
in vegetable and fish oils, with short- or medium-chain fatty
acids. The former provide nutritional qualities, while the latter
metabolize faster and provide quick energy.
“The combination of fatty acids is important,” Akoh
said, “because they each deliver benefits via two different
physiological pathways: the long chains through the lymph system,
and the short and medium chains through the circulatory
system.”
This could result in healthier fats in our diets.
Fish Oil Without the Fish
One of his fat substitutes was created from medium- and
long-chain
fatty acids from fish oil. In lab tests, this fat substitute has
been shown to reduce cholesterol by 49 percent.
It also boosts the immune system by increasing thymus cells
19 percent. The thymus is a ductless gland composed mainly of
lymphoid cells. It plays a part in the body’s immune system.
“This could be especially beneficial to AIDS patients
who have low T-cell counts,” he said. “We’re trying
to develop these oils for specific groups, like AIDS patients
or people with cystic fibrosis or fat absorption disorder. And
we’re also working on an infant formula.”
The new fish-oil fat would be helpful, too, to healthy people
who want to stay that way. Many people want the health benefits
of fish oil, but don’t like fish.
“We’re creating various structured lipids and adding them
to products like mayonnaise, salad dressing, beverages,
confectionary
coatings and even dark chocolate,” Akoh said. “By
adding
healthy oils like this one directly to foods that already call
for fat as an ingredient, we can get them into mainstream
consumer
products.”
Akoh says taking a fish oil supplement wouldn’t be nearly as
effective, because the body absorbs structured oil much more
quickly
and easily than a pill.
What Will Consumers Say?
Before these new oils can make it to the market shelves,
however,
they have to pass the consumer tests.
“We recently introduced to a consumer panel a new
canola-oil-based
structured lipid used to create a chocolate-flavored nutritional
beverage,” he said. “The oil was blended into a
nutritional
supplement drink. They tasted one with the new fat and one with
the traditional fat ingredient.”
The results from this taste test aren’t yet available.
“These new oils are a step in the right direction,”
Akoh said. “Now people are eating fat just because it’s part
of their food. We want people to eat a healthier kind of fat that
will do some good for them and not clog their arteries. So when
you make a batch of cookies, you can include a fat that wouldn’t
increase your cholesterol.”
