24/7 Pringles to combat PCBs

By 15. April 2014Blog, Health, Nutrition

No, unfortunately for all you crisp lovers out there that does not mean eating Pringles all the time, this is referring to the paper that says eating 24 Pringles a day (fried in a special oil) can help to lower levels of olychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the blood.

The study, published in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, used a fat substitute called olestra, that has no nutritional value and therefore can lower the fat content in food, to fry the Pringles in.

Volunteers were given either 24 Pringles cooked with olestra or 12 cooked in normal oil (corrected for calorific content) for one year. The group that had the Pringles cooked in olestra showed a greater decrease of PCBs in their blood than the group who ate normal Pringles.

Olestra has had a bad press in the past, as it can cause “abdominal cramping and loose stools”  and appears to reduce the absorption of some vitamins into the body. Apparently this version has been reformulated.

Let’s see if that does the trick, I for one, still like sugar free gum and mints and they come with a health warning that they can also cause gastrointestinal problems when consumed in excess.

Click here to read the paper on the ScienceDirect website.