Polydextrose: The Truth Behind the Smiles of Fred Flintstone and Toucan Sam

Recently on television and just roaming through the supermarket, you may have noticed sugary cereals by Post that have been boasting that they have a good source of fiber. You can just imagine how excited and grateful the thousands of mothers were across the country when they first heard the news. My child can have his or her favorite cereal and still get a good source of fiber per serving?! While your child is enjoying his or her cereal and you're smiling from ear to ear like a mirror image of Fred Flintstone and Toucan Sam on the cardboard box. Now I'm going to use the appropriate phrase here "You can't have your cake and eat it too". The reason why these cereals all of the sudden have fiber is because...well...it isn't fiber at all. The ingredient that is added is something else called polydextrose, and it supposedly acts similar to the process of fiber that the FDA call actually call this ingredient fiber, when it truly is not. This may seem confusing but I'll help to break it down.

The way that the cereal manufacturers make polydextrose is quite simple (well it should be if they are making a mass production and it's all about quantity and not quality now a days right?). Polydextrose is actually synthesized from glucose and sorbitol which is a low-calorie carbohydrate. Polydextrose is one of several new aged fiber additives (others include inulin and maltodextrin) showing up in dairy and baked-goods products that previously had little to no fiber in them at all. There are two different kinds of fiber known as functional and dietary. Functional fiber is where polydextrose, inulin and maltodextrin fit in and they all appear to act like fiber within the body and they are extracted from chicory root. Dietary fiber is basically where fiber comes from naturally, like fruits, vegetables, and grains. Since polydextrose is not an all natural source of fiber but rather a man made source, it does not show any evidence of enhancing cardiovascular health such as preventing heart attacks, high cholesterol, or lowering the risk of heart disease. Polydextrose acts like dietary fiber in one way by speeding up the body's gastrointestinal tract. The confusing part of this whole matter is the FDA is labeling the use of polydextrose, inulin, and maltodextrin as being dietary fiber. So the box of several Fiber One products, for example, will state on it's nutritional fact label that it contains up to 51% of your daily fiber intake and state that the fiber is dietary when it's actually functional. There is no evidence that consuming functional fiber provides any health benefits to our bodies like dietary fiber.

Polydextrose, inulin, and maltodextrin, and other other functional fibers are basically deceiving people into believing that the junk food that they're eating contains a "good source" of fiber (mainly dietary) and they all of the sudden think that their junk food has magically turned into health food. Well in my opinion junk food is junk food even if it claims to be health food. A word of advice to read the ingredient list on the back or side of the product. Those Post cereals I mentioned earlier still contain sugar or high fructose corn syrup along with added dyes, colors, and partially hyrdrogenated oils (trans fat in disguise) in the first few ingredients. If these ingredients are at the top of the ingredient list then that states that the product is mainly constructed of. Food manufacturers can lie all over their products, boasting that they have faulty fiber, contain 100% whole grains, and contain zero grams of trans fat (when they obviously do because they have partially hydrogenated oils), but the one thing they cannot lie about is the list of ingredients. If you look at the ingredient list first and notice if the list is short or a laundry list, if there are ingredients that you can recognize and pronounce. Food manufacturers basically want to sell a product and sell in a product in mass quantities. In order for the food industry to do this they have to do some research and discover what the most and relevant trends and concerns that people have. Fiber is the example here but more recently Vitamin D is creeping up into and onto boxes of cereal and other products because people are now worried about not getting enough Vitamin D. The trend is shifting because Scott Monette, a spokesman for Ralcorp, which owns Post cereal brands said that his company is removing polydextrose from their products and they are instead adding higher doses of Vitamin D to their products because it is "more timely and relevant ingredient". These people don't care about your health, all they care about is selling a product. Keep smiling Fred Flintstone and Toucan Sam, because I know behind that smile is corporate greed, and I'm not smiling back.