by Amy Lund, Dietary

Have the WOW chips caught your eye in the grocery store? Wondering what these snacks can mean to your waistline or your heart?

WOW chips are made with Olestra, a calorie-free fat replacer. Processed from vegetable oil and sugar, Olestra replaces regular cooking oils or fats, but cooks, looks and tastes like ordinary cooking oil. When made with Olestra, snack foods such as potato chips, corn chips, tortilla chips and crackers have less fat and fewer calories.

Can Olestra fit into a healthy eating plan?

The American Heart Association and American Cancer Society recommend keeping total calories from fat to less than 30 percent. Snacks made with Olestra offer reduced-fat options for those who want to keep a healthy level of fat in their diets, while enjoying snack foods.

When substituted for their full-fat counterparts, foods made with Olestra can help reduce fat and calories in your diet. But remember if lower-fat foods are used in addition to the usual diet, rather than serving as replacements, your total fat or calorie intake will not be reduced.

Choosing reduced-fat and fat-free foods should be just one part of an overall healthful eating plan; this, along with regular physical activity, can help lower your risk of many diseases, including heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and some types of cancer.

Why is Olestra controversial? Is it safe?

Olestra products bear a food ingredient information label (not a warning label) indicating that some people may experience softer stools.

Any such digestive changes are considered to be like those experienced after eating other foods that are not well absorbed (like high fiber bran cereal). But are these digestive changes being understated? Apparently a large number of people have reported severe cramping and diarrhea after eating snacks containing Olestra.

However, research is suggesting that Olestra does not cause diarrhea, and any severe gastrointestinal problems are only coincidental to eating Olestra-containing snacks. Consumers interested in Olestra snacks may have to test their own body's response to Olestra and decide for themselves if the product fits into their healthy eating plans.

Also, if Olestra is eaten at about the same time as foods containing carotenoids or vitamins A, D, E, and K, it may decrease the absorption of this nutrition. To offset this effect, food companies add these essential vitamins to the foods made with olestra.

How will I know if foods contain Olestra?

Olestra is available under the Procter and Gamble brand name Olean, which appears on food packages. The word Olestra appears on the food label' ingredient list.

For example: Ingredients: Potatoes, Olestra (Olean Brand), Salt, Vitamin E, Vitamin A, Vitamin K, and Vitamin D. Olean is a trademark of the Procter and Gamble Company. For information, visit the following websites <http://www.eatright.org> or http://www.olean.com>.