Fat Magnets, Chitosan, and Soap by Dr. Donald A. Miller

I recently chanced upon a web ad for chitosan, claimed to be

a "Fat Magnet", which would let one eat fatty foods and lose

weight. Looked like another magic pill. So I turned to my handy

Google.Com search engine for information.

Chitosan is processed from chitin, mostly obtained from

crushed shellfish shells, crab shells, and similar. Chitosan

is a polymer with structure similar to cellulose. It has

applications in industry, such as to hold catalysts.

The national governments of both Britain and the USA have

taken legal actions against makers and sellers of chitosan

as a diet supplement, because claims that fat absorption can

be blocked by ingesting chitosan have been tested and proven

false. Yet many internet sites are still selling this snake-

oil medicine. I wonder why that is. Don't the good guys win

and make the bad guys go away?

One of the diet sales sites told me that chitosan is an

extract of crushed shellfish shells, and can ionically

attract "negatively charged fat like a magnet". For

starters, the mechanism of magnets does not involve ions or

charge attraction.

An example does come to mind in which ions interact with

fats, namely the making and use of soaps.

Again, let's turn to the handy Google.Com search engine.

Soap was discovered at least four thousand years ago, and

many times in many places since then. Soap was not always

used to clean, sometimes the soft form being used to treat

open wounds, or as a hair dressing, for two examples. One

way for soap to form is for fat drippings from a cooking

fire to combine with water and the alkali existing in wood

ashes. This alkali is hydroxide of sodium and potassium.

One legend says that rain water falling on fire altars

used for animal sacrifice to gods caused soap to form and

flow into streams that were then discovered to be good for

cleaning clothes.

A molecule of soap consists of a molecule of fatty acid

(carbon and hydrogen atoms) chemically combined with an atom

of sodium or potassium, with some other atoms, such as

oxygen, tied in. The chemical process involves the exchange

of electrons among the parts, said parts being identifiable

as positive and negative ions. Soft fats tend to make softer

soaps than solid fats. Potassium makes softer soaps than

sodium.

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BIO:

Dr. Donald A. Miller is author of "Easy Health Diet" http://easyhealthdiet.com/diet.htm, "Easy Exercise All Ages" http://easyhealthdiet.com/eeaa.htm, and numerous free articles on health http://easyhealthdiet.com/articles/.
Seven of ten deaths are caused by preventable diseases.

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