Olestra (zero calorie cooking oil) - chemical synthesis and taste test

I synthesized olestra from biodiesel, sugar, and soap with a sodium metal catalyst. I also describe some of the history of olestra's development.
Procedure that I used (Example 1) patents.google...
Other resources:
patents.google...
patents.google...
sci-hub.se/htt...
Biodiesel: www.e-educatio...
extension.okst...
• Biodiesel Production D...
Epogee fat substitute:
www.epogee.com...
healthsmartfoo...
Potassium oleate soap synthesis:
lipidlibrary.a...
Studies on gastro distress and calorie compensation:
sci-hub.se/htt...
sci-hub.se/10....
sci-hub.se/10....
Anal leakage MadTV: • MadTV Spishak Cholestr...
Support Applied Science on Patreon: / appliedscience

[@NileRed]

That was a fun video! Also, I share your hatred for sand baths. I have never had a good experience with them.

[@busti4552]

What would the title of this video have been if you had made it instead?

[@mrmax35]

Copper shot and some glasswool/aluminum foil topper works pretty well Used to use that in the glovebox back in my undergrad days. Though if you are willing to fork over a few bones, Ika Aluminum blocks were the best.

[@MrTridac]

Very cool. While watching I thought: "I wonder what Nile thinks of sand baths?" ... there you go. I love our filter bubble :)

[@duroncrush]

I'd like to know more about bleaching earth

[@cjk32cam]

Fluidised sand bed instead? Have memories of using the same when tempering metals.

[@thethoughtemporium]

This was a lot of fun! What a cool idea. If we can't change peoples habits, give them the tools to succeed anyway

[@chuckcrunch1]

lol😆

[@JoshWebb]

Identify a problem that could be solved by a change in people's habits: Most refuse to change. Develop a tool to mitigate the problem: Many declare the tool is "unnatural" and refuse to use it, and/or declare the problem isn't even real. Seems humanity has a habit of playing out this scenario.

[@northernmetalworker]

@@sub-vibes it can, offer an alternative technology to a vaccine.

[@DanielSMatthews]

Need to ask yourself, what could possibly go wrong? Is that stuff bad for the environment? I assume that if you cannot biodegrade it then it must be harder for other organisms to process too? And what if the biosphere does adapt genetically and those genes make their way into your intestinal microbiota, would you then end up getting the calories anyway?

[@northernmetalworker]

@@DanielSMatthews that would be incredibly ironic if we evolve our way into unhealthiness after trying to avoid it.

[@ChefSalad]

My mom really loved those Wow! chips when they first came out. After a while of eating them regularly, she started eating more in one sitting. One night, she had a few too many drinks and ate an entire giant bag, and got the dreaded laxative effect the next day. She said it wasn't all that severe, but annoying. I suspect that the effect is similar to taking those fat blocking pills and then eating a bag of chips. If you do that, all the oil from the chips passes right through and acts like a laxative. The same thing also happens to people who eat large amounts of fat after having had their gall bladder removed. This whole "too much non-digestible stuff=powerful laxative" effect is well-known to diabetics, since a similar phenomenon occurs when you consume too much sugar-free candies based on sugar-alcohols. While some sugar-alcohols are fully digestible, most are only partially digestible or non-digestible and will give the laxative effect. This laxative effect is caused by the undigested sugar-alcohols absorbing large amounts of water, loosening your stools. I also suspect that the sugar-alcohol laxative effect can sometimes be made worse by gut bacteria which can often digest those sugar-alcohols that your body can't, giving you a large amount of gas to go with the loose, watery stools, producing a serious explosion hazard, so to speak. I think this "non-digestible=laxative" effect makes non-nutritive foodstuffs basically a non-starter for the general public. This is mostly because the general public has already proven to be poor at regulating their intake amounts, which will inevitably lead to publicity problems after gluttons gives themselves an unintentional intestinal flushing.

[@vaderdudenator1]

sadly you're probably right

[@AlexanderGee]

I wonder if you could balance this out with some form of dietary fiber.

[@Muonium1]

Sadly, this was also the fate of my CrunchEnhancer. See, it's a non-nutritive cereal varnish, it's semi-permeable, it's not osmotic; what it does is it coats and seals the flake preventing milk from penetrating it. In trials it caused explosive colon prolapse though so marketing made us drop it. Anyway I have a new non-caloric silicone based kitchen lubricant that's 500 times more slippery than any cooking oil in the works that seems to have some promise in setting new sledding based land speed records.

[@TaramiBedona]

@@Muonium1 "caused explosive colon prolapse so marketing made us drop it" Yeesh, people see everything as a problem these days.

[@testbenchdude]

"While some sugar-alcohols are fully digestible, most are only partially digestible or non-digestible and will give the laxative effect. This laxative effect is caused by the undigested sugar-alcohols absorbing large amounts of water, loosening your stools. I also suspect that the sugar-alcohol laxative effect can sometimes be made worse by gut bacteria which can often digest those sugar-alcohols that your body can't, giving you a large amount of gas to go with the loose, watery stools, producing a serious explosion hazard, so to speak." Found this out the hard way by consumption of Diet Coke. I only ever drank it at my in-laws' house, and always wondered why I became super gassy whenever we visited them until I made the connection. Also I used to chew a lot of sugar-free gum, and only after learning about my intolerance to sugar alcohols was I able to put 2 and 2 together as to why I was so gassy pretty much all of the time. Bonus: I'm also lactose-intolerant. Pretty much anything with either lactose or sugar alcohols (maltitol, xylitol, etc) gives me bloating and other issues. It's interesting to me that while I thought my lactose intolerance was responsible for all of this, it may perhaps be a combination of things. Learning what I can eat safely (and comfortably) has been a 20-year process, and I am still learning. I can get by without all the sugar-alcohol lace foods, but I just wish cheese wasn't so dang delicious. It's my crutch.

[@mahill2006]

I feel like Ben was testing the algorithm to see how much he could say “anal leakage” without getting demonetized.

[@magnusdagbro8226]

I actually got an ad for some weight loss stuff so it seems he triggered *something*.

[@bdnugget]

That naughty smile every time he says it is priceless

[@jhoughjr1]

As someone with IBD anal leakage is real. But i dont see how this compound would cause it speccificallly

[@Wombbatts]

I used to play WoW (World of Warcraft) with a food chemist from Frito-Lay who worked on Olestra, whose character name was Octaester.

[@wqqdcraft]

thats random and kinda cool! hahaha

[@vapidwords]

Did you mythic raid with him?

[@Wombbatts]

@@wqqdcraft I figured you needed more random...your Bacon number in Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, is at most 3. I know his Chef. Bacon's diet secret? Chili made with ground turkey. Pretty tasty.

[@flaplaya]

This has HUGE comedic potential this, thread here 👏 👌 😂

[@SoftBreadSoft]

This reminded me I played Guild Wars with a food chemist but I forgot where they worked.

[@MikeOrkid]

I love how versatile this channel is. One episode is electromechanical, next vintage auto radio repair, then cooking chemistry. Thanks for being awesome, Ben!

[@CatacombsBC]

i love how happy you got when you announced you were trying the olestra chips. you can definitely see the appreciation you have for your hard work

[@sincerelyyours7538]

He had the same look on his face that Doc Brown had after he built that huge machine in the 19th century and out popped a single ice cube...

[@gslidevideotester8592]

Username checks out

[@bigclivedotcom]

I wonder if the olestra food would have been less "moreish" than the current sugar-fat offerings. The food industry wouldn't have been pleased if it was going to encourage healthier living at the expense of their profit.

[@hyperboreanarchives7299]

This stuff is not healthier than saturated or even polyunsaturated fats, it is however probably equally as bad as trans fats.

[@hgbugalou]

@@hyperboreanarchives7299 I am not sure if this is true. Olestra is completely indigestible. This is reason the anal leakage fun occurred. I would be interesting to see long term studies.

[@delphicdescant]

@@hyperboreanarchives7299 There is no evidence for that statement, other than people convincing themselves that something this good can't be true and must have a catch.

[@nrml76]

@@hyperboreanarchives7299 How is that nutritionally possible if it cant be digested and/or absorbed?

[@agulag]

How is it, that your comments are voiced in my head, by you?

[@halcofdrops]

Speaking of caramel, have you ever looked at microwave synthesis of carbon dots? You can microwave some sugar water with citric acid or polymer to make carbon dots that fluoresce blue to green on UV excitation. Purification from precursors can be done through dialysis or gel filtration. Pretty cool kitchen chemistry.

[@anoirbentanfous]

what kind of magic is this, +1 to make a video about this

[@CanalTremocos]

Is that bad for you in any way? I make the caramel for my egg pudding by burning sugar with orange zest in the microwave (with just a few drops of water).

[@JavierChiappa]

Please make this in the next video!

[@PiranahKill]

@@CanalTremocos I don't see why it would be. I'm not a chemist though. The effect ultra violet light has on a substance shouldn't effect the way your body handles it.

[@buddyrevell4329]

This is very interesting. Years ago I worked in an R&D polymer lab and I did a lot of work with fatty acids. We were incorporating unsaturated fatty acids into a polyurethane backbone that is dispersed into water to be used on wood coatings. Once coated out, these unsaturated fatty acids react with themselves via oxidation in the presence of a metal catalyst (cobalt, manganese etc.) forming a crosslinked polymer coating with properties that are on par with that of solvent based alkyd coatings. We looked into using Olestra as it would be a great way to incorporate a higher percentage of fatty acid into the polymers that we were looking at. We were unsuccessful as most of the methods we were using were done at higher temperatures which caramelized the sugar that we were using.

[@TacohMann]

Your videos are always so incredibly interesting, and they span such a large range of subjects. Thanks for sharing!

[@jimcrelm9478]

I'm a long time viewer and fan but it is disappointing that the discussion of the implications of synthetic food substitutes is so impoverished - both in the video and in the comments. Leaving aside the story of trans fatty acids (now known to be harmful but once touted as a solution to the perceived saturated fat problem - a concern largely sponsored by the sugar industry as is now widely acknowledged), the fact is, we already have non synthetic foods that are healthy and satisfying. The problem and the solution is as usual, is economic and social, not technical. On the social side, rat models have demonstrated that pathological consumption behaviour is largely determined by, and solved by, the quality of social interaction in the subject's daily life and by early life trauma. Thus because of both of those factors, shame is usually the last thing that a person with an unhealthy diet needs. Yet low fat foods are marketed in a way that reinforces negative self perception and negative feelings about food. We need less marketing of food, not more marketing of marginally healthier substitutes. On the economic side, fatty foods are cheap, quick to prepare, and fill the hole left by a lack of quality social time. And food deserts are a widely acknowledged problem. If we all spent less time at work and more time at home including in the kitchen, then even though the proportion of our daily lives that were part of the Free Market would shrink, we would be much richer and much healthier when it came to what matters. I'm an engineer by profession, but if you ask me it's a shame that a lot of viewers of this channel still regard technical solutions as anything other than a means to delay the inevitable, when it comes to contradictions like this. We can't engineer our way out of social problems in the long run. We need to start asking ourselves why we have these problems when traditional solutions already exist. And the answer is that we pay no regard to the social foundation or the ecological ceiling of economic activity, and we talk about the economy in a very reductionist way.

[@lordjaashin]

@@jimcrelm9478 there's a lot of difference between rats behavior and human behavior. rats life is solely focused on primal instincts like food and reproduction whereas humans society has progressed beyond these base survival instincts. in short, what may not work in rats works in humans. there are plenty of fat loss regimes that have shame factor incorporated into it and they work. you cannot change someones behavior by wearing coddling them

[@BreakingTaps]

I love the deep frying with tweezers and a beaker of salt. Science!

[@marx96xVx]

Oh, I just noticed you have NileRed beakers! Nice!

[@ramachandran8666]

Very informative demo of a combination of physical and synthetic chemistry at work. We did a lot of work to optimize the process and efficiency of the Olestra molecule. As you rightfully pointed out the story of Olestra is rather convoluted at best where the science was right but the "Biochemistry", as well as the consumer psychology, were the "KILLER-FACTORs". BTW, the "cleaning up" of organic mixtures using adsorbents like diatomaceous earth, activated charcoal, etc are standard Org-Chem 200 lab work. The physical chemistry of adsorption on various gas/liquid to solids are fascinating P-Chem (thermodynamics) topics as well. I always enjoy your methodical work with thoroughness.

[@ThunderDog]

Applied Science should be at the top of the KZbin universe. As always, your willingness to share such awesome stuff is very much appreciated. Cheers.

[@airman2468]

Agreed. Also, I hope the move went well. Your work is pretty awesome, and I am still looking forward to seeing more, if your life ever permits.

[@Zwinglify]

Seconded!

[@zachariahmiddleton5256]

I'm so happy you did this. Literally last week I listened to a podcast about the history of Olestra and how it was unfairly maligned, and I thought "I hope NileRed or Applied Science does a segment on Olestra some day." You read my mind!

[@HuygensOptics]

As a chemist by education, I can really appreciate how much effort you put into this. The human aspect is also very interesting though. Here in the Netherlands in the 1990s, an alcohol free beer brand went out if business because of a single joke by a comedian on TV. After that joke, you could not be seen any more drinking that beer on parties. Maybe the leakage joke had the same effect...

[@AppliedScience]

I didn't know you're background was in chemistry. What made you decide to switch to optics? What was the beer killing joke ? ;)

[@HuygensOptics]

@@AppliedScience No it were the funny looks I got at parties when I told them I was a chemist. I suspected that they assumed I made my own cooking oil and might be leaking.... 😂 No seriously, optics is just a side track like most things are in my life.

[@peasley9]

This is great. I work next to the giant chemical plant p&g built to manufacture Olestra. I believe they spent $500 million to build it but after giving up sold it for something like $100-150 million. Marathon petroleum now operates this plant as one of the largest biodiesel facilities in North America in Cincinnati. I think they use soybean oil and canola oil as their feedstocks like you used in the video

[@Thee_Sinner]

Potato chip making pro tip: Grind up the salt like you did for the sugar at 7:42. Bonus tip: Grind a 1 to 10 ratio of MSG and salt for best flavor

[@SoftBreadSoft]

@Casey Lewis it's a salt sugar molecule, it's like tongue crack, and acts as a neurotransmitter when doses are enough that a significant amount makes it past the blood brain barriet, stimulates nerve cells and increases brain glutamate so that's the hype I guess.

[@Mp57navy]

@Casey Lewis MSG... is the reason meat, cheeses and tomatoes taste good. It can be found (some examples) in walnuts (0.8%) Parmesan (1.6%) Tomatoes (0.4%) and Breast Milk (0.02%) Edit: We consume between 10g and 20g of glutamate per day from our diet, of which glutamate from seasoning or condiments is less than 10%. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration notes that a typical serving of a food with added MSG contains less than 0.5 grams of MSG.

[@ModMINI]

Some early studies suggested that MSG is associated with increased blood pressure and heart disease, but that linkage almost totally went away in later studies. It's fine to eat a little bit of MSG and it really does make food taste better if you are able to taste it. Don't use it on everything obviously, but don't completely avoid it either. It's really great in soups or with spicy foods.

[@zyeborm]

@Casey Lewis but uncle Rodger says it's the King of flavour.

[@robertt5992]

If a product is non-digestible, why would we eat it? The idea that the non-digestible "food" doesn't affect your body is ridiculous. Love your videos.

[@pcpeoples26]

I love your videos! I look forward to seeing them everytime! You go into a rabbit hole and come out on the other side with an interesting video!

[@jebowlin3879]

Rabbit hole with an atypical ending :D

[@TheNicolaivlog]

You are the only creator where I have notifications turned ON, and I have never been dissappointed by any of your videos! Absolutely amazibg stuff!

[@bbrown9763]

I wish I knew you IRL. It fascinates me how you know so much about so much & you're always doing interesting little experiments. I also had no idea cooking oils went through so much processing. I thought they were harvested, filtered, then packaged- no idea there was so much chemistry involved. Yet another incredible video, Sir. Thank you.

[@bnasty267]

Some oils are simple just that, like olive oil. However, the ubiquitous and misnamed 'vegetable oil' is highly processed, usually made from soybeans. I think hexane is the typical solvent used to do the extraction.

[@Ms_Princess_Zelda]

This video made my day.

[@SilenceDogood76]

I feel like having Ben as a neighbor would be like Wilson Wilson from home improvement from the 90's. Only here, there is a non-zero chance of being launched into low earth orbit should one of these experiments go awry... worth the risk in my book though...

[@MladenMijatov]

I know, very rare traits in people these days. Good thing is, anyone can become good at different things, just takes a lot of effort, passion and not giving up. But we live in a world of instant gratification and not many want to dedicate themselves to anything.

[@JustinKoenigSilica]

@@bnasty267 highly processed means nothing if you don't know the process behind it... It's just a cop out to say "I don't like it because it's bad"

[@WatchTomDotCom]

My uncle was a biochemist. We had many laughs regarding Olestra back in the 90's! Unfortunately, he past away a few years ago. However, his ingenuity has made my life better! Speaking of ingenuity, Ben your video's have sparked my imagination again! Thank you for imparting your knowledge on your channel!

[@VincentGroenewold]

What an awesome video again! When I was a kid I remember that the main concern (this was in the netherlands) with the oil wasn't the runny bottoms, but the fear it might dissolve vitamins and create an issue because of that.

[@cyrenecai]

I remember Olestra, not that I ever ate anything with it; never knew it was a synthesized sugar + fatty acid ester. Oddly just earlier in the day I'd idly wondered if such a thing was possible, lo and behold here this video comes to answer my question! As for the use of olestra, personally I think the better solution for low-fat potato chips has been to bake them instead, the taste is a bit different but not that much; plus, you've still got the much larger amount of calories from the starch in the potatoes, which when eaten as snacks in a sedentary setting just end up getting converted right into fat anyway. To me it seems like the main purpose of most chips is as a delivery system for the seasonings on it, not so much the flavor of what it's made out of, you could probably just make chips out of slices of eggplant, spritzed with olive oil and air-fried, and then coated with salt & vinegar or Flaming Hot or whatever and most people would still like it...

[@SVanHutten]

On one side: Very interesting synthesis with (for me, never seen before) soap as solvent! On another side: Never heard of this Olestra oil, but its effect on the consumer reminds me of the oilfish ( _Ruvettus pretiosus_ ) whose fat is made of wax esters and causes the same "leakage" depending on serving size and also on the individual sensitivity. Having already experienced the fish, I would pass on the fries... Great video and topic, as always.

[@jayytee8062]

Butterfish?

[@michaellinahan7740]

Soon after I arrived in Australia I unwittingly got some of these Butterfish fillets from a local fishmonger (no warning!) about 3 hours later I had the rear end equivalent of projectile vomiting. On top was a yellow oil about 1/2" deep (not that I measured it!) the 'symptoms' lasted about 24 hours; thanks to google I found out what I had eaten. The fish did have a wonderful flavour and very creamy but the pleasure of eating does not balance the discomfort of the after effects!

[@jayytee8062]

@@michaellinahan7740 Hahaha I have only heard of them. Never tried and never will.......unless i ever need a means of rear end propulsion.

[@michaellinahan7740]

@@jayytee8062 It certainly did give the work colleagues a great deal of amusement at my expense when I graphically retold the story! Thankfully I was never caught short!

[@kraklakvakve]

Yes, I experienced the effects of a similar fish (served as Butterfish, probably Lepidocybium flavobrunneum). It was not good.

[@tracybowling1156]

I wonder how you come up with these seemingly random ideas for videos. It seems like when something catches your eye, you figure out how it works. It's so fun that we get to go through your thought process and it's so sexy to see your amazing brain at work. I love your smile at the beginning of each video. It always seems like you know how much fun we are all about to have and your excited about it.

[@timmccormack3930]

There's a soapmaking (and maybe general chemistry?) technique called "salting out" that helps recrystallize the soap and drive out excess lye and impurities. I wonder if it can also be used to speed up the process of producing dry soap.

[@pdrg]

I have never found one of your videos uninteresting or poorly researched or any of that bad stuff. The fact you put so much effort into all of these is extraordinary, and thank you for doing so.

[@djough1]

One of your better videos Ben. All of them are very informative, but this one took the chip. Not heavy, but light! Thanks again!

[@emilysmith6897]

15:18 Another big challenge is that if you reduce fat calories, people may just make up for it by eating more carbs. This is exactly what happened with the low fat craze and look at how that went. The thing is, if you actually replace fat with olestra and then eat twice as many chips you're actually WORSE off. Which may be what people do. There need to be studies on whether olestra actually produces satiety, because if it doesn't, people will eat more cause they don't feel full and will possibly be worse off. The keto diet (getting your calories from roughly 65-80% fat, 20-35% protein, with extremely low carbs) shows that eating lots of digestible fats may actually be a good thing, so eliminating digestible fats may make things worse. There NEED to be studies on this before jumping to the conclusion that replacing fat with olestra will produce weight loss and better health.

[@leovalenzuela8368]

Ben: I'm not going to eat so many as to find out the threshold for anal leakage... Me, indignant: and you call yourself a man of science!? Ben: ...I'm going to have to save that for another video. Me, choking back tears of pride: that's my man...

[@esepecesito]

We will call him on that promise!!!

[@zyeborm]

If he needs someone to volunteer to eat a family sized bag of chips, I volunteer as tribute lol

[@prla5400]

@@zyeborm for family sized laxative calamity

[@ianphilip6281]

Ha! Great comment.

[@wades623]

It's been 3 weeks so how long are we giving it to call him on that

[@nnamrehck]

I worked for P&G R&D when this product was under development. My tech at the time warned me about the taste tests. He told me, if you participate, be ready to run to the potty.

[@mahill2006]

I remember as a kid, my mom bought olestra pringles. I personally had stomach problems and can attest that it did, in fact, come out in the end. There would be a layer of fat that would float on top of the water after a #2.

[@anonymousarmadillo6589]

Thanks for the detail lol

[@Autumnmalguy]

That makes me wonder what the effects would have been on sewage treatment, were the product successful. It seems there are always unintended consequences when you make something that existing biology can't break down.

[@seephor]

Why is that a bad thing? oil in the toilet is better than in your arteries

[@rubiconnn]

@@seephor The problem is that if you have a lot of undigested fats in your colon it's going to come out of your butt when you don't want it to lol. Still, I wish this oil was available to purchase. I'd be frying food for dinner every night.

[@LordDragox412]

@@seephor Oh yeah? Tell that to the people that have to unclog your pipes after hardened fatbergs form in them, they'd rather you had heart attack than murder those poor pipes >:(

[@dan110024]

I haven’t seen your videos in years and nothing has changed! I still understand very little but find it thoroughly interesting!! Love it.

[@MCPeeBoy]

I love this channel. Super simple, straight forward and with a little history lesson on top

[@James1095]

Olestra was fine, I used to eat the chips and as long as you didn't pig out and eat the whole bag it didn't cause any trouble. If you overdo it you could get the runs but in moderation it wasn't an issue.

[@Robalo-2660]

Thank you Ben , you never fail to amaze me with all the knowledge and detail used in your presentations . I have to say , I'm not 100%, but I think this is the first time I've seen you eat one of your experiments. Love your channel, It's food for the brain !

[@zakhenry]

There's a few - the freeze drying series had a couple and there's a vacuum/pressure frying video

[@Robalo-2660]

@@zakhenry Thanks Zak, I'll have to go back and find them . I must have missed those.His work is fascinating to me .

[@arsanzic2161]

Gotta be one of the best science channels on YT. Keep up the awesome work and thank you!

[@reggietheporpoise]

I remember buying some fat free Pringles from a gas station on a road trip when I was a kid. When we looked more carefully at the packaging in the car, we couldn’t stop laughing at the warning “This product contains Olestra. Olestra may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools.”

[@smartinsilicon]

Fascinating video, I learned a lot. RE: market, it was rejected for al the wrong reasons. Seems like we need to change the way we live with cars. Every city built up in pre-car times is generally happier and more fit. Tools like Olestra are bandaids on much bigger problems. But I think the problem is so big that we need bandaids along with continual progress on these systemic problems.

[@jamesheald567]

your quality standards are so much higher then commercial mass production 👍

[@ricoreyes6044]

That capacitor mug is awesome.

[@maxmusterman3371]

chemists be like: lets take some mars rock, grind it up and mix with rocket fuel, heat it then mix with soap, fine tune with some water (duh) and voila! a baguette

[@Scyth3934]

NileRed in a nutshell:

[@randomelectronicsanddispla1765]

Bloody French! So, that's why they all to know if there is water on Mars. I'm Belgian, so I'm allowed to pick on the French

[@alakani]

Common misconception; if you grind up the mars rock you'll end up with a carousel red 1969 Pontiac GTO "Judge" convertible. If you want a baguette, you have to hit the mars rock with a 3lb engineer's hammer

[@anullhandle]

There's a proposal that goes something like grind up moon rock add carbon nanotubes add epoxy and rotate to make a telescope mirror on the moon.

[@randomelectronicsanddispla1765]

@@anullhandle that's actually a sensible idea. If you spin a container of fluid around its centre of mass and the same axis as the one force of gravity is pointing, the surface will naturally take the shape of a parabola. If you do that to epoxy while it cures, you just made a parabolic mirror blank. (Lots of other material science hurdles but that's the gist of it)

[@artmatthew1]

This video made me smile a lot. Thank you for sharing your bright and joyful explorations with us.

[@ncktbs]

im fascinated by this because as a teenager i helped my dad make bio diesel and my mom made homeade soap as a kid so while chemically i had no idea what the hell any of the words you used were i followed along pretty well if i do say so myself the neatest way to make soap by the way is wood ashes and rendered down beef tollow makes pioneer soap

[@nonsuch]

I ate the hell out of the Doritos and Ruffles with Olestra. I never had any major issues with it. I did get sick of it though. It leaves a greasy film in your mouth that regular oils didn't and it kinda turned me off to the taste/feel eventually. It helped me lose weight for sure though. Meaning, it satisfied my chip cravings and was a God send. I was on a fat free diet for a few years and lost 100 lbs. People who had real issues with Olestra were the kind of people who would eat entire bags like they would if it were chips with oil. Having all that Olestra in their digestive tract would inhibit the absorption of vitamins (especially K) and I'm sure other minerals.

[@spatialfree]

Chips are something that you eat until you've reached your self imposed limit or the physical one you've learned from experience. When you are then seemingly told that those limits are gone (which the studies didn't do), you are bound to find the new ones (more likely in the debachourous privacy of your own home rather than in public during a test)

[@defenestrated23]

Saying that glycerol has 3 "sockets which you plug fatty acids into" is like, the most engineer way of describing chemistry I've ever heard. And as a chemist-turned-engineer, I love it.

[@richardhead8264]

*Her:* _"Hun, do you want the BBQ or the Sour Cream & Onion?"_ 👩🏻 *Me:* _"I'll take the biodiesel and soap, if you don't mind."_ 🧐

[@TheBackyardChemist]

Sounds something one would find next to the ultra-vinegar flavour lol

[@JH-tc3yu]

I could literally watch an Applied Science video every day for the rest of my life

[@nibblrrr7124]

00:00 Intro 01:02 Background: *history* 01:54 Background: *carbohydrate chemistry* 02:59 *Biodiesel/FAME* 04:32 *Getting fat & sugar to mix* (soap) 07:17 *Sugar* (sucrose) 08:00 *Catalyst* (NaH) 09:17 *Main reaction* 10:49 Side note: *sand vs. oil baths* 11:19 *Washing* 12:03 *Decoloring* (bleaching earth) 13:01 *Does it cause gastroinstestinal issues?* 14:34 *Technological solutions to population obesity* 15:40 *Later attempts to market olestra* 17:08 *Frying test* 17:53 *Taste test*

[@smash5967]

Glad to see you getting back to your roots and doing cooking videos again ;)

[@mbmurphy777]

Why they didn’t mix the sugar and fat together like cookies? Osmotic effects limit the ability to feed neonates. So you have to use low concentration feeds but then fluid balance in something that weighs less than 5 pounds is a nightmare

[@joshzwies3601]

What this boils down to is that the problem of obesity isn't because we're eating fatty foods, it's simply because we're eating too much food in general. Most people these days just aren't disciplined enough to regulate themselves. I doubt reducing the amount of calories in food will ever help the issue, low calorie foods will just encourage people to eat even more effectively cancelling out the intent of low calorie "diet" foods.

[@wreckervilla]

there is also a non-zero chance that our gut bacteria might evolve or incorporate an enzyme that could break it down effectively

[@gnatdagnat]

this is the coolest outcome of such a product

[@ArabGamesGeeks]

@@gnatdagnat Yes, it will be very cool outcome, but it will defeat the purpose of the product lol.

[@frankwilson2607]

One could easily imagine that a species not typically found in the gut would invade the gut to utilize this new carbon source though it doesn't necessarily follow that it will play nice with the rest of the resident microbiome. The interloper has the potential to cause pathology - consider H.pylori, first thought to be benign flora but more recently found to be cause of gastric cancer and ulcers. If you build it, they might come...

[@Dr.HowieFeltersnatch]

Maybe over 10s of millions of years. That is a pretty complex thing to evolve.

[@derAtze]

​@@Dr.HowieFeltersnatchI don't think so. If you think about gut bacteria being literally in the billions and reproducing multiple times each day, considering it only takes one functional copy of a gene that is able to decode an enzyme for it, it probably already has happened

[@johnpossum556]

Since AVE hasn't been making many longer videos these days this channel has moved up to be my favorite #1 Channel. Dude, you had some funny lines in this. Now can you show me how to make a DIY opioid painkiller DIY? I have chronic intractable pain from Scoliosis and was on opioids for almost 20 years. 6 years off it now but the more I suffer needlessly the more I think I should be in control of this too. I have no drug problems because of the ways my Drs have honestly taught me. Never been in trouble with the law for drugs, either.

[@johnpossum556]

Let's see if I can find the vid I was thinking of but this one is great, too. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fGWukHeqmJyJh8U&ab_channel=LivefromAmerica%21 Here's the part of Robin Williams classic HBO special from New York City where he talks about Olestra: kzbin.info/www/bejne/foStaaesmbJgfK8&ab_channel=FUKITOLREAL PS, they're both very short and very funny.

[@TheBackyardChemist]

Go oldschool and grow poppies?

[@DrmedWurst-se8df]

I once participated in a clinical trail, concerning fat resorbtion, especially MCTs. For this purpose I had a diet of pure fat and only tee. Man I absolutly know what they mean with "anal leakage", more than one time I barely shat my pants in the lab. I think, to much fat (no matter what type) is never a good choice for your bowls, and some people might have been to overenthusiastic about these "Wow!" chips.

[@jaro6985]

Yeah, google MCT oil empty stomach, does not work out well.

[@Buffalax]

You've been doing videos for years and years, and I have been watching other KZbin chemistry channels forever, and this is the video that KZbin gives me as an introduction to the channel. Excellent content.

[@roboman2444]

A similar thing happens with various "diet pills" that basically reduce the body's ability to digest fats. This means that there is a lot of oils just "passing through".

[@BRUXXUS]

OMG.... I remember those infomercials!

[@aerogfs]

xenical?

[@mytmousemalibu]

Ally, and it was an awful experience.

[@douglaslangley9251]

@@mytmousemalibu god their pamphlets literally mentioned having an "ally-oops" and had the worst descriptor I have ever read: "Stool may look like it has a layer of grease similar to what you would see on a pizza"

[@mytmousemalibu]

@@douglaslangley9251 The pills, Ally.... It's more than just a laxative effect, it was blowing a stream of straight vegetable oil out of your ass! Oil floating on top of the toilet water, beyond disturbing and completely disgusting! Imagine pepperoni oil/grease. You couldn't trust a fart, it would 100% feel like gas but it was a nasty surprise. End up blasting your pants with sh!t oil. Horrible experience on that crap.

[@IvanGOrtolan]

Man this channel is soo good, every video is a pleasure to watch!

[@matthewellisor5835]

Another outstanding one! More, ahem, "tasteful" than a certain "other" food science project. ;D

[@monto39]

I'm doing a food science refresher course right now - your explanation of triglyceride structure (1:53) is one of the most straight fwd and easy to follow I've heard. I'll be referring other classmates to that section next week when we do review for the exam. I'm also really intrigued by Olestra and EPG. I ordered samples of EPG, still looking for Olestra

[@robrod7120]

The “leakage” effect reminds me of the time I ate well over a pound of cashews as a child. A few hours later I was terrified to see orange oil globs floating around in the water, all after some major stomach cramps. Would not recommend, but I’m sure the phenomenon is similar.

[@dragoscoco2173]

I can confirm. It is an excellent solution to any parent with a constipated kid. But usually 3-4 nuts is enough.

[@wonderbars36]

All I could think about after seeing the title to this video is that Robin Williams bit about anal leakage he gave in his stand up years ago. "Oh just a little anal leakage, Ted but I'm fine" lol.

[@Typhoonbladefist]

There’s a ton of magnesium in cashews. Magnesium is also used in laxatives and if you ate over a pound of cashews, that’s like taking a triple dose of a laxative.

[@robrod7120]

@@Typhoonbladefist Makes sense, not something Im ever going to do again lol

[@dabyd64]

You honour the quote "More doesn't mean better", low update rate but when it does... Oh boy. Amazing topic. Again. Really interesting, now I want to try that!

[@brett4264]

I always got A's in basic chem classes in HS and College, but I feel so out of my element watching this. I love chemistry but it's probably a good thing I went with Electrical Engineering in College.

[@drkastenbrot]

As EE I feel the same way when looking at modern antenna designs.

[@mdubbs12299]

orgo(o-chem) does that to people

[@emiliehans5225]

Damn, what a shame that your best videos have so less views. So much higher quality than other youtubers.

[@TomsBackyardWorkshop]

I never tried it but I am the kind of guy who would eat an entire bag in a single sitting and given my digestive problems I probably would have experienced the anal leakage.

[@tinkeringstuffs6542]

You seem to enjoy that food science and I really do as well as always great work.

[@JB-Was-Here]

Seems like the smoke point of the Olestra you made on the left was a lot lower than the oil on the right. Is that a characteristic of Olestra itself or possible contamination?

[@AppliedScience]

:) Yeah, I noticed that too. I suspect contamination -- probably also the additional foaming. I honestly tasted no difference in the chips. Earlier, and off-camera I tasted a few drops of the oils neat, and I could just detect some caramelized sugar flavor in the olestra that I made, so I suspect it's that. Er, I hope it's that :)

[@JB-Was-Here]

@@AppliedScience cool haha, thanks for the info! This was a really fun and informative vid to watch. I appreciate your effort and time sharing it with us. 👍👍👍

[@clonkex]

@@AppliedScience I couldn't help but think that the foaming looked like the effect soap would have ;)

[@serpentine1983]

When using new oil to fry chips, it foams a lot (but with a lot of chips thrown in). Though, not as much as the olestra you made. At least that happens with the oil we use. The second time we fry chips, it won't do it (and yes, we change it regularly, burnt oil is bad).

[@charlesalexanderable]

Could be the kerosene from the sodium chunk

[@MarcelHuguenin]

I have not been educated in any scientific area but I find your videos always very interesting. Great stuff!

[@pvtpain66k]

"Today on Applied Science; We'll be testing the threshold of Olestra for anal leakage" Part of me prays for this, part of me prays I never hear it.

[@gregfeneis609]

Excellent work! I loved the biodiesel and soap angles.

[@nautica8745]

I've heard different types of vegetable oil breaks down into toxic aldehydes at different cooking temperatures, wondering which oil has the lowest breakdown temperature for that and creates the most aldehydes, maybe versus butter or margarine as well.

[@talideon]

Search for "smoke point": that'll give you what you're looking for.

[@NotProFishing]

Avocado oil has a stupid high smoke point of like 500F

[@noahwilke]

@@NotProFishing yeah avocado oil is amazing. I started using it in a lot of things instead of vegetable oil and it can get insanely hot without smoking at all

[@boronguy]

@@talideon Smoke point is absolutely not the whole story. For example extra virgin olive oil has a low smoke point, but due to the presence of polyphenols and other antioxidants the formation of hydroperoxides and other toxic products is very low (due to it terminating the radical mechanism). Thus making it an excelent cooking oil. Ultraprocessed seed oils on the other hand, marketed with "high in polyunsaturated fattt acids (wich are very unstable when heated and also not healthy in the first place" are absolute garbage and should never be consumed

[@Thomas..Anderson]

Seeing how much work goes into a single slice of potato chips I think it is a miracle we should all be grateful for that it is sold so cheaply.

[@mattfleming86]

And for your next video, getting oil stains out of cotton!

[@Peter_A1466]

He did make soap!

[@aldomorell7975]

My mother used to put baby powder on oil stains to absorb the oil. It actually works with clean oils (like olive oil, not dirty motor oil stains).

[@micha7864]

I heard about olestra for the first time during my chemistry classes in high school. Nostalgy... Now i feel like in classroom again. A lot of fun! Thank you for this video!

[@pjmoran42]

Hey can you build a do it yourself rapid covid test? I see that it's possible to buy all the components. They look expensive and not sure what needs to be assembled/ measured etc. I think it would be a timely video!

[@marvingudel605]

I really enjoy your videos! You make rally high quality educational content. Informative, well researched, showing the whole process (pitfalls etc.), and also some gags and funny anecdotes.

[@qwerty975311]

I remember my dad liking the wow chips when I was growing up. He said they made his poop waxy or oily but otherwise didn't seem to have any problems. He would eat a whole bag in one sitting sometimes.

[@gearloose703]

Honestly sounds like a good product. People drink diet coke after all, this can't possibly be worse.

[@chrisjacobsen1659]

That's an open family. I mean my dad shit with the door open, but he didn't describe his excrement to me at any point.

[@tissuepaper9962]

@@chrisjacobsen1659 if he was regularly eating food that was widely criticized for causing "anal leakage", the rest of the family probably asked him how it was doing for him lol.

[@markusberg2770]

Well done, Professor. Multiple interesting tenets were succinctly covered in an enjoyable manner.

[@TechGorilla1987]

Sugar alcohols used to do the same to me when I first went keto. They don't phase me in the slightest now.

[@1224chrisng]

I've seen those Amazon reviews for gummy bears made with sugar alcohol, it's hilarious cause they also pass straight through the system

[@aaronsj80]

My favorite sugar alcohol is xylitol

[@Dirty_Bear22]

@@1224chrisng that. Keep in mind different sugar alcohol have different tolerance levels.

[@davidcovington901]

Sorbitol is another Franken-molecule - this one is a sugar alcohol - to prevent digestion. Found in sugarless gum, so excess use will also cause bowel distress. Not the molecule itself, but what the bacteria down there do with it. It would be unreasonable to expect anything else when you pour a large organic molecule into a vat of bacteria.

[@rdizzy1]

The odd part with sugar alcohols is that if you eat them long enough, in great enough quantities, the effect stops happening, even in large amounts. I used to be on keto and would eat tons of this, bothered me at first, then went away, could eat plenty of it with no bowel distress.

[@ericwilner1403]

Very interesting! It's a fine reminder of the difference between measured calories and bioavailable calories (sawdust has lots of calories too, but not available unless you have a termite's gut microbiome). And, a literary connection! Being curious about "bleaching earth", I looked it up, and was led to fuller's earth, which brings to mind "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb".

[@Asdayasman]

I'd love to see you go deeper on nutrition. Things like how a calorie isn't a calorie (carbs vs protein), amino acid balancing in proteins (why vegetarianism sucks), the downsides of vegetable oil vs animal fats (What I've Learned did a video on this recently), and how harmful carbohydrates as represented in the USDA food pyramid are for satiation and hyperinsulinemia and stuff. I also love how you have a big smile on every time you're on camera, it makes me feel as if you just love tinkering in the lab so much that you can't help but smile.

[@Dirty_Bear22]

I have been down a similar path of discovery. Started to realize how much misinformation had formed around food over the years. Not personally vegetarian, but getting a complete spread of amino acids from plants is possible, but seemingly rather difficult. Some plant based protein powders have managed to do this pretty well. Plant and animal oils are fine IMO and have different benefits, just stay away from highly refined “vegetable oil”. I typically use olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, grass fed butter, ghee, and beef/duck tallow. Definitely agree on typical carbohydrates, simple processed carbs are basically just sugar…

[@Asdayasman]

@@Dirty_Bear22 Did you find anything out about rapeseed and peanut oil? They're the ones we use in my household typically.

[@Dirty_Bear22]

@@Asdayasman Rapeseed/canola and peanut are pretty highly processed as well. In general any seed oil isn’t the best. There are some good videos here on KZbin if you are interested. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qILQoomMorJ1ac0 kzbin.info/www/bejne/pp3NgqWgnql2b7M kzbin.info/www/bejne/jmKylmBqptB8epI Oils that aren’t certified organic will have varying amounts of trace pesticides, depending on the crop. The more you heat, refine and process an oil the more oxidized it becomes and looses more nutrients. Canola/rapeseed oil has to be heated chemically treated and filtered to remove its nasty smell and taste… The best oils are just cold expeller pressed. This involves pressing the oil bearing fruit under high pressure only. Animal fats should ideally be pasture raised. Edit: Steam refined avocado oil (nearly all Avocado oil is steam refined) is a perfect substitute for peanut, canola, corn, soy, etc oil.

[@fudgesauce]

Ben must be pretty confident of his chemistry knowledge to eat it knowing all the funky catalysts and intermediate products generated. Or maybe he has a mass spectrometer in the back and that part didn't make it past editing.

[@mduckernz]

Nothing here is particularly concerning

[@nelmindo]

Few but all good videos always, in this channel. Greatings from Portugal

[@briancox2721]

Did anyone else hear Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden in there head when the subject of making soap came up?

[@jstache93]

Cool video. I listened to a podcast about Olestra last year; I'm a little fuzzy on the details but one of their references showed that Olestra was so good at dissolving vitamins that it would leach them from the body.

[@michaelwinter742]

So.. Can we combine this with the sugar from diet gummy bears to get the ultimate dessert?

[@acf2802]

Sorbitol is a laxative. You must really hate your underwear.

[@markgerard363]

Great Job. I do love to see how you are really good at explaining that witch only a few understand!!

[@Yrouel86]

This is the first time I hear of this and I think it's a shame it flopped so much. Having guilt free (sort of) fried stuff would be amazing. Do you have any info on how resilient it is, like how many times can be reused before degrading? Also is it easy to break down again to recycle into I guess biodiesel if not new olestra?

[@NewMoahk]

Haha but then you have to eat more so that you can get calories.

[@benjaminhanke79]

Never heard of it, I don't think this stuff was ever sold here in Germany.

[@drewduncan5774]

@@LegendLength No need for a strainer; it floats right to the top.

[@urrick33333]

really happy to see you again, Ben!

[@TechGorilla1987]

I have never been this early!

[@dettonator6]

That's not what she said

[@6alecapristrudel]

I've always wondered what you actually do for a living? I mean, you videos always look like they take so much time and effort to make!

[@Aratimb]

will that another episode be audio only? 😂

[@jacobcdefg]

I've always been fascinated by the failure of Olestra, thanks for making this video, it was a great combo of the product history and chemistry!

[@WolfmanDude]

I had a similar idea once after I ate toast with motor oil instead of butter. It tasted acceptable and I did not get sick. This is more optimized tho!

[@sophiophile]

You would absolutely get sick if you did that regularly. There are things in most motor oil that produce permanent damage to PNS, resulting in motor dysfunction.

[@Polite_Cat]

I love the variety of cool science topics on this channel. You are exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up - a scientist working on random cool experiments!