Fake food frenzy.

Just what the world needs--another fat substitute that can cause nausea and cramps.

Olestra, meet salatrim.

Salatrim (also called Benefat) has been engineered to have 45 percent fewer calories than other fats.

In 1994, after minimal testing in humans, manufacturer Nabisco unilaterally declared salatrim safe to eat. So far, it's only used in a few products, including SnackWell's Raisin Dips, Hershey's Reduced Fat Baking Chips, and Entenmann's Light Fat-Free Chocolatey Chip Cookies.

But before you rush out to fill your cupboard, consider this: In Nabisco's own studies, people who ate even the smallest amount of salatrim tested (30 grams a day--the equivalent of six 1.5-ounce packs of Raisin Dips) had significantly higher rates of nausea and cramps than people who were given a (lookalike but salatrim-free) placebo. But no one required medical care, Nabisco assures us. Thanks a lot. And the company didn't bother to test salatrim on older people or children.

More troubling, there's no way to tell from the skimpy research if there is a safe level of salatrim--one that doesn't cause cramps and nausea. And unlike Procter & Gamble's fake fat olestra (Olean), salatrim carries no label warning about potential discomfort.

(Speaking of olestra, in June, after 9,000 adverse-reaction reports had been received--a record for a food additive--a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee expressed little concern about the loss of potentially beneficial carotenoids and the GI problems caused by olestra.)

When the FDA let salatrim slip into the food supply, it once again failed consumers. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the consumer group that publishes Nutrition Action Healthletter, has filed a complaint with the FDA, pointing out the troubling results of Nabisco's inadequate testing and asking that salatrim be taken off the market.

Olestra and salatrim are part of a bizarre new trend. One (olestra) is an indigestible fat; the other (salatrim) is a partially digestible one. Food manufacturers are also using partially digestible sugar alcohols like sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol, which can cause diarrhea. And they're adding indigestible gums and cellulose derivatives to foods as emulsifiers and fat substitutes. Needless to say, no one has looked at what happens to people who eat more than one of these additives on the same day.

Food is supposed to nourish us. How ironic that, at a time when many people are going hungry, companies are converting nutrient-rich crops into indigestible goo. And calorie-conscious consumers are choosing foods based on their indigestibility.