Word: fats
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Five years after U.S. regulators approved the first genetically altered food crop, the "FlavrSavr" tomato, there are all manner of brave new foods on the way: beans and grains with more protein, caffeine-less coffee beans, strawberries packed with more natural sugars, and potatoes that soak up less fat during frying. At last count, says plant ecologist Allison Snow of Ohio State University, field trials have been conducted for some 50 gene-spliced food plants, including squash, melons, carrots, onions, peppers, apples and papayas...
Whether customers get the miracle they bargained for remains to be seen. Xenical, which blocks absorption of about one-third of fat intake, was only 5% more effective than a placebo in clinical trials and came with several unpleasant side effects, including flatulence and greasy stools. "The hazards are not very great," says Dr. Jules Hirsch, an obesity expert on the FDA advisory panel who voted against approval, "but the benefits are not great either. I'd just as soon they didn't sell it altogether...
...Fat chance. In its first week on the market, Xenical was prescribed by an estimated 24,000 U.S. doctors in face-to-face consultations. If you wanted to fit into a smaller bikini and couldn't co-opt your GP into saying you were obese enough for the drug--well, you knew where to look. "Where can I get Xenical online without a prescription?" asked a correspondent in the newsgroup alt.drugs. A reply came from Pharmcom.com another offshore operation, this time in New Zealand. Like a good spouse, the online doctors don't call you on your weight claims...
BRAIN FOOD It may sound implausible, but researchers think a type of fat in fish--known as omega-3 fatty acids--could help people with manic depression. A preliminary report shows that patients who for four months took daily pills containing 10,000 mg of omega-3s (that's about five salmon steaks' worth) were twice as likely to go into remission as those on a placebo...
...have been responsible for five deaths that occurred in New York City between 1993 and 1998. All surgery is risky, and the death toll is not huge, but doctors are concerned. The problem may be the massive doses of an anesthetic, lidocaine, that are pumped in before the fat is sucked out. Patients may have overdosed...