MMMMM, OLESTRA!

It sounded too good to be true, and it probably was. The Center for Science in the Public Interest -- the organization that brought us the evils of Chinese food and movie house popcorn -- claimed Wednesday that the fat substitute olestra is too dangerous to be put into the nation's potato chips. "The basic problem is that there isn't enough evidence that this product is safe," says TIME's Alice Park. "Olestra seems to deplete the body of essential vitamins, and its use raises some questions about other health risks that we need to know the answers to before it is released to the public." Michael Jacobson, the Center's director, says olestra not only depletes the body of vitamins A, D, and K, and causes unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms, but actually chases cancer-fighting nutrients out of the body. Procter & Gamble, olestra's manufacturer, defends the product, claiming that 8,000 people have tested olestra in food safety studies over the past 25 years.