nick

Now I'm not talking about the garbage oils, such as soybean, processed with
heat, chemicals, and pressure, but the point is that natural trans fat is
fine - it is a "fake saturated fat," in a sense. And saturated fat is
resistant to free radical damage, which is the major cause of "chronic
disease," as well as problems to various organs - gallbladder, appendix,
intestines, etc. When you eat trans fat made from unsaturaed oils and by
industrial process, you ingest a time bomb, and you know what I mean if you
have placed leftovers in your refrigerator and smell the rancidity in a
short period of time. That occurs in the cold and in the absence of the
amount of oxygen it will be exposed to in your body. So in your body,
there's a ton of free radical damage going on when you eat these oils, but
the point is that the trans fat is not doing the damage - instead it is the
unsaturated fatty acids that, once exposed to oxygen after being stored in
an air-tight bottle, quickly turn rancid due to the processsing. I've never
seen a media report on this, but it is baisic biochemistry. Trans fat
cannot harm you, but if you eat the processed and highly unsaturated oils,
you're looking at potentially massive free radical damage. I eat raw goat
milk cheese, which contains the natural trans fat.

"The Good trans Fat
Will one family of animal fats become a medicine?
Janet Raloff

Over the past 4 years, a new and surprising dietary supplement has been
edging its way onto the shelves of health-food stores. Known as CLA, it's a
mixture of trans fats, compounds usually associated with raising the
concentration of cholesterol in people's blood. The acronym, for conjugated
linoleic acid, signifies that the fats in CLA are unusual forms of the
essential nutrient linoleic acid.


Are conjugated linoleic acid capsules really a superdrug?
Illustration: RTS


Though manufacturers of CLA can't legally make health claims for their
products, they often point to recent scientific articles--which they
occasionally post next to their products--indicating a growing list of
possible health benefits from CLA. These include fighting cancer, enhancing
immunity, and ridding the body of fatty, artery-clogging plaque.

The first potential health effect of CLA emerged 17 years ago, when Michael
W. Pariza of the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced that he had
isolated an unidentified agent in hamburger that reduced the incidence of
cancer in mice (SN: 12/22&29/84, p. 390). Four years later, his team
unmasked the mystery agent: one chemical form, or isomer, of linoleic acid.

Pariza and other researchers soon found that dairy products also contain a
mixture of isomers that they began calling CLA. Some concentrations of CLA
in dairy products were similar to those in ground beef. Indeed, Pariza's
research temporarily became the butt of more than a few jokes when it
identified the richest dairy source of CLA as none other than Cheez Whiz (r)
(SN: 2/11/89, p. 87).

But nobody's laughing about it now. Several hundred published studies of
CLA's effects in animals and a few preliminary experiments with people have
since suggested an array of health benefits from the unusual trans fats.

David Kritchevsky of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia sees more than a
little irony here. In recent years, animal fats have been scorned as
promoters of chronic disease. The possibility that the trans fats in CLA
offer health benefits and are naturally "only found in animal fat is proof
God has a sense of humor," he says.

A kinked molecule

Linoleic acid is a kinked molecule built around a chain of 18 carbon atoms.
Most of the links coupling each carbon to its neighbors are known as single
bonds. Two of the links in the chain are the more rigid double bonds.

Various chemical reactions can induce one of the double bonds to shift so
that it is separated from the other by only one single bond. The molecule
that results is called a conjugated fatty acid. There are several dozen of
these CLA isomers that differ in the placement of the double bonds and the
kinks in the chain. Their names indicate where the double bonds lie along
the molecule and whether there's a kink at that spot (a cis double bond) or
no kink (a trans double bond).

Of the different CLA isomers that can form, just two have been linked to
health effects. One's called cis-9, trans-11 (c9-t11), and the other,
trans-10, cis-12 (t10-c12). Isolating each of these isomers is difficult and
expensive. Most tests therefore use a mixture of the two that's commercially
produced from a vegetable oil.

Experiments in animals have revealed the mystery cancer fighter that Pariza
discovered in hamburger 17 years ago to be c9-t11. It continues to be the
most frequently studied of CLA's isomers.

Potential health value

While there haven't yet been trials of CLA's cancer-fighting potential in
people, scientists have begun human trials to investigate the fats'
potential value in other health applications. For instance, at an American
Chemical Society (ACS) meeting last fall in Washington, D.C., Pariza
presented encouraging, albeit preliminary, findings from a study aimed at
helping people battle the bulge.

His team gave 3-grams of off-the-shelf CLA supplements daily to half of the
80 clinically obese men and women enrolled in a weight-reduction trial. The
remaining volunteers received identical capsules filled with sunflower oil.
Animal studies had shown that only the t10-c12 alters fat ac***ulation, but
to keep costs down the researchers used a 50:50 supplement of it and the
C9-t11. Both dieting groups also received advice on cutting calories and
upping their exercise.

By the end of 6 months, all the participants had lost weight--on average
about 5 pounds each. However, one-third of those taking the CLA, but only
one-sixth of the others, increased muscle mass. CLA caused the dieter's
bodies to partition more of the energy from food into lean tissue, not fat,
says Pariza.

"Every fat cell in the body wants to get big," he explains. "What the
t10-c12 CLA does is force that fat cell to stay little by affecting a number
of the enzymes that are ordinarily responsible for filling it with lipids."

So, while this isomer doesn't seem to help dieters shed fat, he speculates
that it could help prevent their regaining fat lost by dieting or exercise.

Ola Gudmundsen of Scandinavian Clinical Research AS in Kjeller, Norway, and
his colleagues reported similar data on 60 overweight or obese volunteers in
a 3-month dieting trial. Groups of 12 men and women, 40 to 50 years old,
received daily capsules containing either 9 g of olive oil or a dose of 1.7
to 6.8 g of CLA. As in Pariza's trial, the CLA supplement was roughly a
50:50 mix of the c9-t11 and t10-c12 isomers.

Even in this short trial, people getting 3.4 g or more of CLA per day ended
up weighing 2 to 3 pounds less than the others, Gudmundsen says. Dieters
reaped no extra benefits from downing more than 3.4 g of CLA per day, his
team reports in the December 2000 Journal of Nutrition. The group receiving
the highest dose of CLA did, however, develop slightly more lean tissue than
the other groups did.

Diabetes and large doses

Larger doses of the 50:50 CLA formulation hold out tantalizing prospects for
helping people with type II diabetes, according to another trial reported at
the ACS meeting. Martha Belury of Northwest Hospital in Seattle and her
colleagues at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., tested nine people
who have this adult-onset form of diabetes. The researchers gave them daily
capsules containing either 6 g of safflower oil or CLA daily for 8 weeks.

As in the other human trials reported at the meeting, neither the volunteers
nor the researchers knew who got CLA until the study ended. "But when we
broke the code [identifying the CLA group]," Belury recalls, "our data
screamed at us."


When a chemical process moves the two double bonds in linoleic acid closer,
a conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) molecule is born. Placement of the trans
(t) and cis (c) double bonds affects the molecule's shape and function.
Adapted from M. Cook/U. Wis.


Fasting blood sugar, or glucose, was moderately improved in people getting
the CLA supplements but not in those getting the safflower oil. Similarly,
only the CLA group experienced a significant lowering in blood concentration
of triglycerides, which are groups of fats known to increase the risk of
heart disease. "We also saw this beneficial triglyceride lowering" in a
study with diabetic rats, Belury notes.

"Most exciting and definitely the most significant, statistically," she
says, was the finding that people taking the CLA supplement had lower blood
concentrations of the hormone leptin compared with the volunteers taking
safflower oil. Other researchers have associated elevations in blood leptin
concentrations with obesity. To Belury, her provocative leptin data "suggest
CLA may act on type II diabetes via some mechanism affecting [body-]fat
ac***ulation."

Observes Belury, "Most diabetes drugs today are so potent that they
literally have toxic side effects." If CLA offers pharmaceutical benefits
without the toxicity, she argues, it may provide some individuals with an
alternative to these drugs--or at least a way to ratchet down their drug
doses.

Why did Belury consider studying CLA's effects on diabetes? Her team's
molecular studies several years ago showed that CLA shares properties with
some drugs. "We think CLA binds to a [cellular] receptor that is similar to
one that some antidiabetes drugs target," Belury explains.

Wondering whether the nutritional supplement would act similarly to these
drugs, she and her colleagues administered the fat supplements to rats
predisposed to developing diabetes. To her surprise, Belury notes, "CLA
actually delayed the onset of diabetes."

Slowing plaque buildup

Some other potential benefits of CLA have turned up in animal experiments.
Kritchevsky, for example, recently reported evidence of CLA targeting
atherosclerotic plaque.

In studies with rabbits, he had been looking for agents that don't just slow
a potentially deadly buildup of plaque along artery walls but actually make
these fatty deposits regress. With other chemical agents, he says, "if you
find something that gives you a few percent regression, you do handsprings.
In our studies with [a 50:50 formulation of] CLA, we saw a 30 percent
reduction [in existing plaque]--which is nothing less than phenomenal."

Figuring that such a result was too good to be true, Kritchevsky repeated
the experiments. Again, he fed the rabbits plaque-forming diets for 3
months. He then killed one-third of the animals to measure their plaque
buildup. Over the next 3 months, the surviving animals ate either a normal
diet or one containing from 0.1 to 1 percent CLA, by weight of food. When
compared with the unsupplemented animals, rabbits getting the 0.1
percent-CLA diets had a little less plaque. However, those getting chow that
was 1 percent CLA had 30 percent less plaque, he reported in an April 2000
supplement of the Journal of The American College of Nutrition.

"In animal experiments, nobody has ever reported anything like this,"
emphasizes Kritchevsky. "This stuff is just amazing."

In this application, Kritchevsky doesn't know which isomer is active.

A feed supplement

A little more than a decade ago, while looking for a low-cost feed
supplement, animal scientist Mark E. Cook and his colleagues at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison stumbled onto CLA's immune-enhancing
attributes.

Poultry producers typically vaccinate young chickens to ward off epidemics.
However, "you lose about a day's growth every time you vaccinate a chicken,"
notes Cook. Worldwide, he estimates, this seemingly small extension in the
time it takes to get chickens to market "probably costs growers $1 billion a
year."

Although they didn't know how to avoid it, Cook and others knew what causes
the growth halt in the chickens. When a vaccine stimulates the animals'
immune system, it triggers an inflammatory action, which produces proteins
that induce muscle wasting. Some of these same cytokines, such as tumor
necrosis factor, cause wasting in cancer patients.

"We were hoping to find something to cut the inflammatory reaction that led
to wasting," Cook says. Since compounds fashioned from linoleic acid
participate in the chain of signals that induce wasting, he wondered whether
CLA--as altered linoleic acids--might somehow mute the vaccine's
inflammatory effect.

So, he fed animals either a normal diet or one supplemented with the 50:50
CLA mix and then injected each with an immunity stimulant. "It worked," Cook
crows. "CLA totally blocked the [temporary] wasting" in rats, mice, chicks,
and pigs, without reducing their ability to fight disease.

While that looked like a possible boon to meat producers, the earlier
findings had prompted Cook to worry whether people taking CLA supplements
might compromise their immunity.

So, he encouraged his colleagues to probe how the mixture of trans fats
perturbs an animal's immune system. In a series of patent applications, his
team reports that CLA dramatically increases several families of
infection-fighting white blood cells, including a type known as natural
killer cells. When the body isn't under assault, however, CLA appears to
dampen down the natural background level of immune stimulation. Such a
dampening, Cook notes, is usually a good thing.

Findings in several other animal studies, soon to be published, indicate
that CLA supplements may control allergies. In one experiment, Cook's group
sensitized guinea pigs to allergens to serve as models of allergic asthma.
When the researchers exposed the animals' airways to the allergens,
dramatically less airway constriction occurred if the animals had been fed
CLA.

Most recently, Cook's team has shown that CLA appears to derail allergic
reactions by selectively dampening--as several drugs do--the activity of
cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), an enzyme that triggers many types of
inflammation. Indeed, Cook told Science News, "we're quite excited and have
just patented CLA as a COX-2 inhibitor."

Animal studies

Data from animal studies have consistently shown CLA's anticancer promise.
For example, Clement Ip of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo,
N.Y., recently showed that butter enriched in c9-t11 cut the risk of mammary
cancer in rats that ate it (SN: 12/11/99, p. 375).


Pork from a pig raised on feed supplemented with conjugated linoleic acid,
or CLA, (right) has less fat than pork from an animal that ate the same
number of calories but no CLA. The result suggests that farmers could
produce more edible meat by adding CLA to feed.
M. Cook/U. Wis.


Researchers don't know whether CLA isomers other than c9-t11 have anticancer
effects. Right now, Ip says, "we have almost no [animal] data on the
t10-c12, in terms of cancer protection."

Is it now time to begin studies to see if CLA supplements can prevent cancer
in people? "Not quite," Ip says emphatically.

Human cancer trials of CLA will be difficult, he explains, because
researchers don't know how to measure the isomers' immediate effects.
Because malignancies typically take decades to develop, tracking cancer
incidence in people taking a nutritional supplement is impractical.

Instead, most human trials monitor the relatively rapid development of
precancerous biomarkers, such as elevated concentrations of enzymes, cell
changes, or activation of certain genes. Right now, Ip points out, "we don't
have good information on what biomarkers will respond to CLA in humans, so
we wouldn't know what to look for."

He also points out that the animal work hasn't indicated what types of human
cancers might be most responsive.

Boosting natural concentrations

At doses achievable in an ordinary diet, CLA doesn't appear to have the
power to bring about any of the reported health benefits. Several research
teams have undertaken major programs to boost natural concentrations of
c9-t11 in meat and dairy products. But even enriched foods may not contain
enough CLA to offer a potent barrier to disease.

Hence, the rush by many supplement makers to market megadose formulations.
Capsules now on sale contain about 1 g of CLA. However, most researchers
argue that while these pricey supplements probably aren't harmful, they may
not deliver desired benefits.

Not only have few trials confirmed that CLA works in people as it does in
animals, but currently marketed CLA recipes may not be appropriate to
deliver the hoped-for benefits. At present, manufacturers base their recipes
mostly on what's least expensive to make.

Manufacturers typically synthesize CLA from linoleic acid, or from oleic
acid, the principal fat in olive oil, notes Gerald P. McNeill, technical
director for Loders Croklaan North America in Channahon, Ill. Its Dutch
parent company is a leading producer of CLA.

In the early days, manufacturers relied on toxic solvents and aggressive
catalysts to affordably produce CLA, McNeill explains. However, the
processes were so harsh that they typically yielded "about 25 different
[CLA] isomers in significant quantities," he notes.

"We changed to a gentler methodology," he told Science News. With it, his
company has been able to make 95 percent of its CLA as a roughly equal mix
of c9-t11 and t10-c12.

In theory, he says, it's possible to separate the two isomers. "We've even
done it on a pilot scale," he acknowledges. "But it cost us a wagon-load of
money." As in any separation process, the expense of the first couple
kilograms was more than that of an equal weight of platinum.

If a demand for pure isomers develops, McNeill says, it might be possible to
bring costs down. For now, even researchers usually just settle for the best
that they can afford: a 50:50 mix.

However, getting even a 50:50 mix of the two target isomers can depend on
the manufacturer, which isn't always noted on the label. Pariza points out
that he conducts studies using CLA only from Loders Croklaan and Natural
Inc. of Sandvika, Norway. These two manufacturers routinely submit their
products to his tests to ensure they're a 50:50 mix of c9-t11 and t10-c12
isomers.

Several years ago, similar tests on CLA by Peter Yurawecz of the Food and
Drug Administration in Washington, D.C., showed some off-the-shelf
health-store products wanting. He sampled 15 bottles.

"One was a bogus product" containing no CLA, he says. Several others
contained about 90 percent CLA in the intended 50:50 mix. However, he says,
a lot of the remaining products showed different proportions and included
isomers "with various cis-trans configurations."

Warns Pariza , "Buyer beware" remains a prudent policy.

References:

Belury, M.A., A. Mahon, and L. Shi. Role of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)
in the management of type 2 diabetes: Evidence from Zucker diabetic (fa/fa)
rats and human subjects (Abstract AGFD 26). American Chemical Society 220th
National Meeting. August 20-24. Washington, D.C.

Blankson, H. . . .and O. Gudmundsen. 2000. Conjugated linoleic acid reduces
body fat mass in overweight and obese humans. Journal of Nutrition
130(December):2943.

Blankson, H. . . .and O. Gudmundsen. 2000. Effects of conjugated linoleic
acid (CLA) on body fat mass in overweight or obese human volunteers: A
double-blind, randomized placebo controlled study(Abstract AGFD 23).
American Chemical Society 220th National Meeting. August 20-24. Washington,
D.C.

Cook, M.E., et al. 2000. Regulation of inducible prostranoids and
leukotrienes by conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) (Abstract AGFD 10). American
Chemical Society 220th National Meeting. August 20-24. Washington, D.C.

Hurst, W.J., et al. In press. Determination of conjugated linoleic acid
(CLA) concentrations in milk chocolate. Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry.

Kritchevsky, D. 2000. Influence of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on
experimental atherosclerosis (Abstract AGFD 14). American Chemical Society
220th National Meeting. August 20-24. Washington, D.C.

Kritchevsky, D., et al. 2000. Influence of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on
establishment and progression of atherosclerosis in rabbits. Journal of the
American College of Nutrition 19(April):472S.

Pariza, M.W. 2000. Conjugated linoleic acid: The paradox of
multifunctionality (Abstract AGFD 9). American Chemical Society 220th
National Meeting. August 20-24. Washington, D.C.

Park, Y. . . .and M.W. Pariza. 1999. Evidence that the trans-10, cis-12
isomer of conjugated linoleic acid induces body composition changes in mice.
Lipids 34(March):235.

Further Readings:

Bee, G. 2000. Dietary conjugated linoleic acid consumption during pregnancy
and lactation influences growth and tissue composition in weaned pigs.
Journal of Nutrition 130:2981.

______. 2000. Dietary conjugated linoleic acids alter adipose tissue and
milk lipids of pregnant and lactating sows. Journal of Nutrition 130:2292.

Raloff, J. 1999. Better butter? This one may fight cancer. Science News
156(Dec. 11):375.

______. 1994. This fat may fight cancer several ways. Science News 145(March
19):182.

______. 1992. Cancer-fighting food additives. Science News 141(Feb. 15):104.

______. 1989. Cheese source of dietary anticancer agent. Science News
135(Feb. 11):87.

______. 1988. Cancer inhibitor identified in burgers. Science News 133(Jan.
9):24.

______. 1984. Hamburger beefs up cancer protection. Science News 126(Dec.
22&29):390.

Natural ASA has a Web site at http://www.natural.no/kmeny.htm.

Sources:

Martha A. Belury
Department of Molecular Medicine
Northwest Hospital
2203 Airport Way S., Suite 200
Seattle, WA 98134

Mark E. Cook
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Department of Animal Science
Animal Science Building 1064
1675 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706

Ola Gudmundsen
Scandinavian Clinical Research AS
N-2027 Kjeller
Norway

Clement Ip
Department of Experimental Pathology
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Buffalo, NY 14263

David Kritchevsky
The Wistar Institute
3601 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Gerald P. McNeill
Loders Croklaan North America
24708 West Durkee Road
Channahon, IL 60410

Michael W. Pariza
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Food Research Institute
1925 Willow Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1187

Peter Yurawecz
HFS-840
Food and Drug Administration
200 C Street, S.W.
Washington, DC 20204"

http://www.sciencenews.org/20010303/bob9.asp

moosh!

On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 23:09:12 -0400, "nick" <spam@spam.net> posted:

Now that's scientific?

What are "garbage oils? by definition?

Trans fats are saturated, nothing "fake" about that.

moosh!

On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 23:09:12 -0400, "nick" <spam@spam.net> posted:

Your imagination is beyond bounds. WTF does this mean?

william a. noyes

..
By definition trans-fats are unsaturated.
You are not chemist.

Moo-She is a torus shaped Australia flying bovine.....
......................................William A. Noyes

trent duke

CLA is the only trans fat one should consume. Examples are beef, milk,
yogurt and cheese.

CLA is not a hydrogenated oil which is the very BAD stuff.

Trent


-- Look and Feel Great! FREE weight loss and anti-aging group. Join now @
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/weightloss_health

quentin grady

This post not CC'd by email

G'day G'day Trent,

If you consume beef, milk, yogurt and cheese you will consume some
other trans fats. Fortunately some of them you are capable of
converting to CLA.


--
Quentin Grady ^ ^ /
New Zealand, >#,#< [
/ \ /\
"... and the blind dog was leading."

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/quentin

mark

.... whose usual habitat is the *kill-file*...

Mark

trent duke

Really?

Hmmm...

Trans fat is basically hydrogenated oil or the partial? It's vegetable oil
infused with hydrogen. That is what people should be avoiding or limiting.
You can find it listed in the "ingredient" section of a food package.

How is one consuming hydrogenated oil when eating beef? I just do not see
how vegetable oil is mixed in with beef.

CLA as no relation to hydrogenated oils even though the structures are very
similar.

Trent


-- Look and Feel Great! FREE weight loss and anti-aging group. Join now @
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/weightloss_health

moosh!

On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 23:11:56 -0700, "William A. Noyes"
<no.address@ctc.net> posted:

Neither are you, so what.

Transfats are MORE saturated than the unsaturated precursors.

Your Ghodesque sig tells says much about you.
Most obvious would be that you are so unsure of your supplement
obsession that you have to personally ridicule anyone who offers a
critique of it. Carry on


The point I was making here is the error in Nick's assertion that
trans fats were "fake saturated fat".
But you know what they say about irony

Quote:

"Trans fats are produced through hydrogenation, a chemical process by
which hydrogen is added to unsaturated fatty acids. Hydrogenation
converts the unsaturated bonds in the oil into saturated bonds,
creating a solid, spreadable fat with increased shelf life.
Hydrogenation gets rid of some double bonds, but incompletely
transforms others. These double bonds are transformed from the natural
“cis� configuration to the “trans� configuration. Research indicates
that eating trans fats is associated with an increased risk for heart
disease."

Obvious to all but Nick, apparently.

moosh!

On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 19:39:39 -0700, Trent Duke <tduke00@bellsouth.net>
posted:


Nothing intrinsically wrong with hydrogenating unsaturated olis, so
long as you do it either completely, or remove all the harmful trans
fat molecules. The harmless ones can stay.