|
Sailas Benjamin  and Friedrich Spener
Nutrition & Metabolism 2009,
6:36doi:10.1186/1743-7075-6-36
Published: 18 September 2009
This review evaluates the health benefits of the functional food,
conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) - a heterogeneous group of positional
and geometric isomers of linoleic acid predominantly found in milk,
milk products, meat and meat products of ruminants. During the past
couple of decades, hundreds of reports - principally based on in vitro,
microbial, animal, and of late clinical trials on humans - have been
accumulating with varying biological activities of CLA isomers. These
studies highlight that CLA, apart form the classical nuclear
transcription factors-mediated mechanism of action, appear to exhibit a
number of inter-dependent molecular signalling pathways accounting for
their reported health benefits. Such benefits relate to anti-obesitic,
anti-carcinogenic, anti-atherogenic, anti-diabetagenic,
immunomodulatory, apoptotic and osteosynthetic effects. On the other
hand, negative effects of CLA have been reported such as fatty liver
and spleen, induction of colon carcinogenesis and hyperproinsulinaemia.
As far as human consumption is concerned, a definite conclusion for CLA
safety has not been reached yet. Parameters such as administration of
the type of CLA isomer and/or their combination with other
polyunsaturated fatty acids, mode of administration (eg., as free fatty
acid or its triglyceride form, liquid or solid), daily dose and
duration of consumption, gender, age, or ethnic and geographical
backgrounds remain to be determined. Yet, it appears from trials so far
conducted that CLA are functional food having prevailing beneficial
health effects for humans.
The complete article is available as a provisional PDF.
|
Click here to search for cholesterol content of foods
