Eat Full-Flavored Food With Half Calories, Fat

Scientists Say Z-Trim Replaces Fat, Not Flavor

POSTED: 5:11 pm EST December 11, 2003
UPDATED: 5:25 pm EST December 11, 2003

Imagine cookies, brownies and cheesecake with half the calories and fat, but with 100 percent of the flavor.

A new fat substitute developed by the government may be the answer. It's called Z-Trim and it was invented by the U.S. Agriculture Department. Scientists claim it can replace fat in many processed foods without changing the flavor.

Z-Trim is made from corn. Because of that, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it's a natural fiber that causes no side effects.

George Inglett, of the USDA, said, "Dietary fiber has been consumed since the days of Adam and Eve."

Greg Halpern, a marketer of Z-Trim, said, "Z-Trim can replace up to half of the bad fats in foods."

Z-Trim could be on store shelves by this spring in products like salad dressing. The regular version has 170 calories and 18 grams of fat for 2 tablespoons. The Z-Trim version has 138 calories and 14.4 grams of fat.

Z-Trim cookies have 25 percent less fat and 15 percent fewer calories than the regular recipe. And the Z-Trim cheese in lasagna has 25 percent less fat and 23 percent fewer calories.

Halpern said, "When people taste our product, they can't believe that all this fat has been lowered."

A panel of taste testers tried the products. The first test was the salad dressing. Panelists said they couldn't tell the difference.

"(The) consistency was great. I liked it," one tester said.

The panel then tried the lasagna and cookies.

Tester Marcel Van Gemerden said, "It did not taste like diet lasagna at all. I was very surprised."

"It was moist. It was everything a cookie should be and it didn't lose the flavor," tester Heidi Heinau said.

Even when the Z-Trim foods were put up against full-fat, full-calorie foods, the lower fat option still got high marks.

Van Gemerden said, "If you had asked me which one was low fat, I could not tell you."

The Food and Drug Administration confirmed the ingredients in Z-Trim are categorized as GRAS, or "generally recognized as safe." So, the product does not need FDA approval.


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