No-Calorie Powder May Substitute for Food’s FatGeorge E.
Inglett of the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s BiopolymerResearch Unit in Peoria III invented a no-calorie fat substitute called Z-Trim. It is a mix of crushed fibers made from the hulls of grains. It can replace thefat and some of the carbohydrates in foods such as chocolates, brownies, cheese,and ground beef. He spent three years trying to perfect Z-Trim to be smoothbecause he made it out of tough hulls of corn, oats, and rice.
He first crushedthe hulls with a solution of hydrogen peroxide. He washed the peroxide off incentrifuge. After this step it was still too large, so he put the pieces backthrough the first step of the hydrogen peroxide and the centrifuge. That madeit smooth.
Now, it is a fine, white cellulose powder that can be made into agel by adding water. Inglett also developed Oatrim. This is made up of a digestible fiberfrom oat flour that provides four calories per gram. Z-Trim compared to another fat substitute, olestra, is different.
Olestra can cause gastrointestinal distress and take vitamins and carotenoidsout of the body. The new substitute does not have those affects. Inglett saysthat you should eat more of the kind of fibers that make up Z-Trim to reducethe chances of getting intestinal disorders. But there are some people who argue with Inglett’s theory on his newsubstitute.
“I wouldn’t expect Z-Trim to have the same kinds of problems asolestra,” says Margo Wootan, a senior scientist at the Center for Science in thePublic Interest in Washington, D. C. “Fiber is already found in our diet, whileolestra is a synthetic chemical. There is also concern for the “microbialstability” of foods containing Z-Trim.
“Whenever you remove the lipid materialand replace it with water,” says Thomas H. Parliment, a flavor chemist for KraftFoods in White Plains, New York, “microbes are to grow, and you can get mold. “That would have to be worked out before Z-Trim could go on the market, Parlimentsays. If you want to replace fat in food, Inglett says, only 3 safe no-caloriepossibilities exist: water, air, and fiber.
“You don’t sell anybody air, youdon’t sell anybody water, but you can sell people Z-Trim.
