CLA is a powerful antioxidant that helps fight cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity!CLA, or conjugated linoleic acid, is an important nutrient essential to the human diet. C L A is a slightly rearranged version of linoleic acid, and its altered structure gives it the ability to protect our bodies in ways that regular linoleic acid can not. Interestingly enough, this important nutrient can only be produced naturally by other animals--not by human beings. To get Conjugated Linoleic Acid naturally, you have to eat meat or dairy products that contain this helpful compound. Benefits of Conjugated Linoleic Acid in Grass-Fed Beef One of the most exciting benefits of Conjugated Linoleic Acid is its ability to fight cancer. Recent studies have shown that higher levels of the antioxidant in both animals and humans can greatly reduce the risk of all sorts of types of cancer. In addition, it has been shown to be helpful in fighting diabetes and atherosclerosis. The list of nutritional benefits goes on and on: it can help build up and maintain your immune system, it can improve your cholesterol levels, and it also acts as a powerful antioxidant. Surprisingly enough, this essential fatty acid has also been shown to help people lose weight. It plays an important role in body fat and muscle composition, and many people are turning to C L A to help them improve their overall fat/muscle ratio. While Conjugated linoleic acid supplements do exists, some people have complained about side-effects. The best way to raise your levels is the old fashioned way: by eating food that contains it naturally. Find out more about CLA from the University of Wisconsin's extensive research. The following is reprinted from an article published by the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Madison:
A FAT THAT REDUCES CANCER, HEART DISEASE, AND BODY FAT? Conjugated linoleic acid, a fatty acid found in dairy products and other animal fats, has many beneficial biological effects. So many, in fact, that it may be a previously unrecognized nutrient, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Unfortunately, our consumption of Conjugated Linoleic Acid may be decreasing. Researchers in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences have been studying the compound since the 1970s. In 1987 Michael Pariza, director of UW-Madison's Food Research Institute, discovered Conjugated Linoleic Acid's anti-carcinogenic properties. Pariza also found Conjugated Linoleic Acid significantly reduces atherosclerosis (heart disease) in rabbits. In 1990, poultry nutritionist Mark Cook and Pariza found that Conjugated Linoleic Acid fed to livestock reduces weight loss from immune stimulation induced by vaccines and illness. In 1994 Pariza and Cook reported Conjugated Linoleic Acid, fed to pregnant rats, did not affect litter size nor cause adverse effects in the offspring. But rats fed CLA grew faster after birth than rats not fed the antioxidant. "These findings make sense," said Pariza. "Conjugated Linoleic Acid is in the blood of cows and newborn calves, which suggests it may have beneficial effects to mammalian development and is not likely to be harmful." Pariza and Cook also found that it improved feed efficiency in laboratory rats. Their more recent findings indicate that Conjugated Linoleic Acid reduces the percentage of body fat in mice, rats and chicks, while increasing muscle tissue and bone density. Preliminary results in hogs also indicate CLA reduces back-fat deposition. It is not known if Conjugated Linoleic Acid has the same effects in both animals and people, although it is found in human blood and breast milk. According to the researchers, Conjugated Linoleic Acid may act by signaling the immune system and regulating metabolism by inhibiting cellular enzymes that take up fat. "All cellular membranes are made out of fat, and fatty acids (the building blocks of fat) are involved in cellular signaling," said Cook. "Fat is a very important constituent of life." With the decrease in the consumption of dairy products, and the current health emphasis on reducing our intake of animal fats, our consumption of Conjugated Linoleic Acid may also be decreasing, said Cook. This does not mean we should increase our total fat intake. But, researchers are investigating which fatty acids in fats are harmful and which are beneficial. For example, linoleic acid, also a polyunsaturated fatty acid, differs from Conjugated Linoleic Acid only in the placement of two double bonds in the fatty acid chain. The placement of the two double bonds changes the molecules' biological functions. According to Pariza, linoleic acid is beneficial in limited amounts and is essential to growth. However, excess linoleic acid can enhance malignant tumor growth. The amount of the compound that is needed for biological effects is also different. Linoleic acid is optimal at 1 percent of the diet in most mammals. The researchers found CLA has optimal biological effects at one-half of a percent of the diet in rats, but they have seen beneficial effects as low as one-twentieth of a percent. So far they haven't found any negative effects from excess Conjugated Linoleic Acid. CLA, unlike linoleic acid, is not known to be an essential nutrient. However, the researchers believe it is an important nutrient due to its anti-carcinogenic properties and wide range of beneficial effects. "If you can show a compound cures a deficiency, it will gain acceptance quickly. For example, Vitamin C cures scurvy." said Pariza. "CLA is more like fish oil as a nutrient. Sufficient data had to be accumulated before fish oils were accepted as beneficial," he said. The UW-Madison results have been duplicated in other labs, including those at the University of Massachusetts, Washington State University, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Prior to 1987, when we discovered CLA is an anti-carcinogen, there were very few studies," said Pariza. "Today there are more than 100 intensive studies with CLA." Pariza and Cook plan to conduct human clinical trials to study the effects of CLA on obesity. ### update 5/97 Writer: Teresa Miller
SIDEBAR TO A FAT THAT REDUCES... How does CLA work? Researchers are currently working on several theories regarding how conjugated linoleic acid produces beneficial effects. "We believe Conjugated Linoleic Acid is working through the immune system to prevent cancer and heart disease," said Michael Pariza, director of the Food Research Institute at UW-Madison's College of Agriculural and Life Sciences. CLA works to reduce fat composition in two ways. Some of the fat reduction is accomplished by the regulation of the metabolism through the immune system, said Pariza. In addition, by studying fat cells from rats fed CLA, Pariza and his colleagues found that CLA regulates several enzymes within fat cells. The enzymes induce lipolysis, discharging fat. "CLA makes fat cells release fat into the blood instead of accumulating the fat in the cell," Pariza said. "Skeletal muscle can then burn the fat transported through blood." ### Conjugated linoleic acid: A powerful anticarcinogen from animal fat sources Ip C.; Scimeca J.A.; Thompson H.J.
Department of Surgical Oncology, Roswell Park Center Institute, Elm and Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY 14263 USA CANCER (USA) , 1994, 74/3 (1050-1054) Conjugated linoleic acid is a mixture of positional and geometric isomers of linoleic acid, which is found preferentially in dairy products and meat. Preliminary studies indicate that CLA is a powerful anticarcinogen in the rat mammary tumor model with an effective range of 0.1-1% in the diet. This protective effect of CLA is noted even when exposure is limited to the time of weaning to carcinogen administration. The timing of this treatment corresponds to maturation of the mammary gland to the adult stage, suggesting that CLA may have a direct effect in reducing the cancer risk of the target organ. Of the vast number of naturally occurring substances that have been demonstrated to have anticarcinogenic activity in experimental models, all but a handful of them are of plant origin. Conjugated linoleic acid is unique because it is present in food from animal sources, and its anticancer efficacy is expressed at concentrations close to human consumption levels.
For more scientific data visit this link to the Life Extension Foundation. Or visit the following links: "Amazing Graze" , an article on the USDA web site about the benefits of increased C L A from eating grass fed beef. California State University - chico - Blankson "C L A Reduces Body Fat in Overweight and Obese Humans" Michael Pariza: "Mechanisms of Action in C L A" California State University - Chico - Tsuboyama-Kasaoka , "C L A supplementation reduces adipose tissue by apoptosis and develops lipodystrophy in mice" California State University - chico - Zambell , "C L A Supplementation in Humans"
|
