A Look at How Food Substitutes Are Created Essay

?The eighties were the years of muscle building and nouvelle cuisine and welike to call it the decade of the fitness obsession. We, the people of thenineties, have gotten so discouraged with all of our Ab Trainers and Bunsof Steel that we have reverted to what seems to be an easy way to staytrim food substitutes. Sugar substitutes, such as aspartame andAcesulfame-K have been on the market for a while but the real breakthroughis in the huge amount of substitutes, mostly for fat, that have beenengineered and put on the market. Last year, chemists invented Caprenin, anon-fat substitute for cocoa butter. What is the use of all these foodreplacements? Are they really helpful? I will try to answer this questionthe best I can.Laboratories have created food substitutes to help three groups of peopleobese, diabetics and people suffering of heart disease. For these people,eating is a tedious task, as they have to control the sugar and fat levelsof every food they ingest. It is why I think that food substitutes come tothem somehow like a miracle. Until now, diabetics, for example, were facedwith two choices eat the fake foods that taste nothing like the real thing,or pass. Sure, a man with a heart disease will not be able to eat a steak,but maybe he will be allowed to eat the French fries to go with it if theyare prepared with Olean (Olestra). Olean is a fat derivative thatchemically resembles real fat, with the exception that is much bigger,cannot be absorbed by the organism and therefore, passes right through thedigestive tract. It will also give a sense of normality to a diabetic whenthey want to have a chocolate bar. Sure, special chocolates are available,as well as carob bar, but these substitutes taste nothing like the realdeal, with my personal experience testifies to that. We have now developednew sweeteners that do not leave a tart aftertaste and Caprenin, a compoundthat mimics the taste and feel of cocoa butter,...