Iranian Factory Requests 'One Ton' Of Maltitol?

Perhaps Ahmadinejad wants to give his fellow Iranians the runs?

I've gotten my fair share of strange e-mails ever since I started writing articles on the Internet, but today I received one at my LowCarbNewsline.com e-mail account that frankly freaked me out.

It was from a man identifying himself as a "chemical engineer" from a "factory in Iran."

Okay, that right there made me stop dead in my tracks, especially with the news about the president of Iran writing this letter of defiance to President George W. Bush this week and with that country's continuing to pursuit of creating nuclear weapons despite warnings from both the United Nations and the U.S. to stop. Iranian President Maumoud Ahmadinejad has pretty much told them to kiss his you know what.

Nevertheless, I kept on reading...

Here's what the mystery e-mail to that was unsigned said:

Dear Seller.

I'm chemical engineer, I'm working in halva shekari factory in Iran. We decided to buy one ton (1000 kg) or more than of maltitol. We want to know about price of it??? If it's price suitable for us, we will buy it from you. I'm waiting for your reply.

Thanks great. fax:88825152

Say who what where why when how? Who does this guy think he reached?

I had no idea what "halva shekari" was until I looked it up and discovered it is actually used as a sweetener in a kind of paste concoction of the ingredients sugar, butter and sesame seeds. EWWWW! But the people of Iran apparently like eating halva shekari hot and right after it is made.

It seems this "buyer" who e-mailed me is looking to make a sugar-free version of this stuff using maltitol instead of the sugar. ONE TON (or MORE!) of maltitol, though?!?! Yikes! That factory must either make a whole lotta halva shekari or else they're trying to give gastric distress and the runs to the people of Iran and anyone else who eats this stuff. I-yi-yiiii!

As I have previously blogged about, maltitol is a sugar alcohol that's bad news for your system if you eat too much of it. Sure, you get to avoid the harmful effects of eating sugar, but you make yourself so sick eating maltitol in the process that it's almost not even worth eating ANYTHING with that nasty stuff in it! I avoid it as much as possible and stick with better alternatives such as erithrytol, ACE-K, and Splenda.

Why would this man in Iran think that I have access to over a ton of maltitol? Ha! Either this is somebody's idea of a really sick joke or this guy in Iran is about as delusional as his president is! I wrote him back at his Yahoo account, by the way, asking him why he believes I have any maltitol available for purchase. No response so far, but I'll keep you informed if I do.

Sigh. Could this "one ton" of maltitol be used as part of Iran's evil maniacal plan to get back at the United States? Oh wait a minute, maltitol is ALREADY used in just about everything sugar-free in America -- so much for that idea, President Ahmadinejad!