Conjugated Linoleic Acid ("CLA") - The Promises and Reality

Some people always want the easy way to get slim and have the dream figure - the slim, lean figure they see in media. With those wants, pharmaceutical companies compete with each other to deliver it. The latest craze in dietary supplements come from conjugated linoleic acid ("CLA").

The Basis:

Although technically a trans fat, CLA's carbon pattern puts it into the exception of trans fats, meaning that in moderate consumption you won't need your own defibrillator to ingest it. CLA -an unsaturated omega-6 fatty acid (the good fat) - derives naturally as a source through grass-fed cattle, goats, and other ruminants' meat and dairy products (ruminant: an animal that double processes its food - eats, digests partially, chews cud, then fully digests). Strangely enough, kangaroos produce the highest source of CLA.

Dietary Promises:

CLA dietary supplement marketers suggest that while following their instructions, CLA soft gel pills will reduce body fat with attention to abdominal fat. Advertisements for CLA sold as a dietary supplement, including Tonalin, suggests that CLA can not only aid in losing body fat mass, but:
* Helps with heart health,
* Enhances the immune system, and
* Reduces blood glucose levels for diabetics.

In a Scandinavian study report, "Conjugated linoleic acid reduces body fat mass in overweight and obese humans", they suggest that along with loss of body fat mass, cholesterol levels dropped.

Reality:

With anything you intake, whether a natural source or not, when you increase something substantially, it means certain organs and body parts work harder. Sometimes that working harder may create stress on tissues and organs. To start, the difference in the degree of CLA intake via dietary supplements versus consuming meat and dairy products comes from the dosage. Dietary supplements offer an average value of 22 percent more than natural intake of meat and dairy products. That difference in intake may affect the liver negatively by enlarging or inflaming it.

When the body receives an overabundance of CLA, it makes the liver overproduce a certain plasma protein (C-reactive protein). Often, ill people produce elevated levels of C-reactive protein.

Another health risk from consuming too much CLA by considerately overweight people is an increase to insulin resistance, creating an opportunity to set-off type-2 diabetes, creating further stress on the liver.

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