Fat substitute gets FDA approval

The US Food and Drug Administration last week approved the controversial fat substitute Olestra. The move follows fears voiced by two professors from the Harvard School of Public Health that the product will cause long term detrimental health effects. Their fears in turn led a group of 30 public health specialists to write to the administration's commissioner, David Kessler, appealing to him to refuse approval. Olestra, a mixture of sugar and vegetable oil, is a sucrose polyester made by attaching six or seven …