Food and Drug Administration

^{Multiple Authors
January 3, 2003
Uncategorized

4}

Goodnight, Patients

_{Multiple Authors
January 3, 2003
Uncategorized

4}

Original article Sometimes the Powers That Be and the Powers That Wannabe try to bribe you directly. More often, and far more insidiously, they buy you indirectly, by offering to “save you money.” A drug reimportation bill, which passed the House this past week and is due for consideration in the Senate, seeks to do both. This item would make Read More ›

Road sign triangular shape with exclamation mark on a background of asphalt. The texture of the tarmac, top view.

^{Bruce Chapman
April 26, 1996
Citizen Leadership

5}

Warning: Just about everything may require warning labels

_{Bruce Chapman
April 26, 1996
Citizen Leadership

5}

“May Cause Abdominal Cramping and Loose Stools.” That’s only part of the delightful warning label the Food and Drug Administration insists that Procter & Gamble place prominently on potato chip and tortilla chip products prepared with its new fat-substitute, Olean. The FDA did not accede to the Center for Science in the Public Interest this winter when the Naderite group Read More ›

^{Bruce Chapman
November 10, 1995
Citizen Leadership

6}

Only a fathead would ban fat substitute from my junk food

_{Bruce Chapman
November 10, 1995
Citizen Leadership

6}

This confession, I realize, is hardly unusual enough to get me on the "Jenny Jones Show." Half of all adults in America and a fifth of our children are overweight, and my case is only marginal. But I probably would have ballooned up like the Michelin Man if it hadn't been for the sugar and fat substitutes that food companies considerately began inventing just as I entered middle age. Diet drinks are approaching a third of the market in some areas. You have to look hard for the sugar behind the little pink and blue packets of sugar substitutes at the latte stands; but who's looking? Now, it turns out that the good people at Procter and Gamble Co. are nearing the end of a long, expensive effort to get Food and Drug Administration approval for "olestra," a product that allows potato chips, tortilla chips and other "savory snacks" to be cooked with all the taste of the crunchy little devils we love today but with none of the fat and few of the calories. Soon enough, if the FDA agrees, olestra also can be used to prepare conscience-free french fries, peanut butter, cookies, cakes and ice cream. But the CSPI's evidence is misleading. For example, it cites a study wherein five of 17 people who used olestra products came down with "diarrhea, gas, bloating (or) nausea." Urp! That sounds bad. But CSPI doesn't mention a far bigger and longer study of 3,357 consumers that found no differences in digestive effects between the olestra snacks and regular, full-fat snacks. It also claims that potato chips made with olestra may block absorption of certain vitamins, but neglects to note that the same is true of regular potato chips, and, for that matter, milk. Read More ›