# A New Diet Plan?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-diet-plan/145071
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 27, 2002, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-diet-plan/145071 "2002-12-27T01:06:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2002, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-diet-plan/145071/1 "2002-12-27T01:06:18Z")
I read a 1972 article on Left sugar (commonly referred to as L-sugar) which is an enantiomer (mirror image of a molecule) of regular sugar. The human digestive tract is light-sensitive, rendering the digestive tract enzymes unresponsive to the distinct refraction waves created by the molecules of L-sugar. This means that it is not digested and therefore can be used as a weapon against the growing mass of fat in the U.S. So why has it not been used in the making of everyday food products?
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### Author:  [@fauxpas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fauxpas)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2002, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-diet-plan/145071/2 "2002-12-27T01:10:59Z")
Mabey because some of the 70s products contained extra added drugs?
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### Author:  [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2002, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-diet-plan/145071/3 "2002-12-27T01:14:47Z")
It hasn’t been possible to produce left-handed sugards in a cost-effective way. I believe that there was a recent breakthrough that removed that obstacle, but I don’t have a cite handy.
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2002, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-diet-plan/145071/4 "2002-12-27T01:23:29Z")
It’s called D-tagatose. It also looks like it’s just finishing up being studied–long-term experiements on rats and pigs and things, to make sure it doesn’t cause cancer or something.
[http://class.fst.ohio-state.edu/fst621/Lectures/Sweet/Taga.htm](http://class.fst.ohio-state.edu/fst621/Lectures/Sweet/Taga.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> D-Tagatose
>
> D-tagatose is about 92% as sweet as sucrose, but it is poorly absorbed and yields only 1.5 calories per gram instead of 4. Structurally, it is similar to fructose except the OH on carbon 3 is in the opposite position, Tagatose is mage from galactose which can be obtained from whey.
>
> Submitted to FDA as a GRAS notification.
It’s #78.
[http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~rdb/opa-gras.html](http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~rdb/opa-gras.html)
[http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~rdb/opa-g078.html](http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~rdb/opa-g078.html)
They just started evaluation procedures for it in Oz and NZ, too.
[http://www.anzfa.gov.au/\_srcfiles/A472\_IAR\_091002.pdf](http://www.anzfa.gov.au/_srcfiles/A472_IAR_091002.pdf)
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### Author:  [@fauxpas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fauxpas)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2002, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-diet-plan/145071/5 "2002-12-27T01:30:47Z")
Duck Duck Goose: You must love that Google? (Google:named by its originial owner Mathemetician…its one million millions)
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### Author:  [@sleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2002, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-diet-plan/145071/6 "2002-12-27T01:32:44Z")
But L-sugar was supposed t be entirely indigestible (as I understood.) There wouldn’t be any partial absorption–it would go straight through the digestive tract and be, um, excreted.
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2002, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-diet-plan/145071/7 "2002-12-27T01:47:12Z")
Well, unless there are two “enantiomer sugars” out there. D-tagatose was what came up on Google for it.
Maybe since 1972 they found out that it is partially digestible after all. That would explain why it wasn’t rushed into production as a diet aid, if it isn’t really “calorie-free”.
See, that’s what you get for reading science articles from the Nixon Administration. Now tell me how we’re all going to have computer-controlled flying cars in the year 2000. 😃
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### Author:  [@sleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2002, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-diet-plan/145071/8 "2002-12-27T01:55:40Z")
We will.
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### Author:  [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2002, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-diet-plan/145071/9 "2002-12-27T08:22:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by fauxpas \*
> \*\*(Google:named by its originial owner Mathemetician…its one million millions) \*\*
(Nope. It was googol–which is a lot more than a million million.)