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Content archived on 2024-05-24

Conjugated linoleic acid (cla) in functional food: a potential benefit for overweight middle-aged europeans

Objective

Chlorate is present in effluents from various industrial processes. If not removed, harmful chlorate ends up in surface waters and groundwater and eventually can even be found in drinking water. The aim of this research is to characterize the (facultative) anaerobic microorganisms that are able to convert chlorate completely to chloride, and to investigate their applicability in reactor systems. The main objectives are to investigate the diversity, physiology, biochemistry and the genetics of chlorate-reducing microorganisms and to investigate their chlorate-removing capacity and their stability in reactor systems. This research should generate knowledge for the anaerobic microbial treatment of chlorate-containing waste-systems, thereby preserving the quality of water. The results are expected to be used also for the detoxification of other harmful ox-anions like chlorite, per chlorate, bromated, arsenate and serenade.
From the animal experiments, we may conclude that:
-Adult rats fed ad libitum are less responsive than growing rats to the fat-reducing or growth-promoting effect of these CLA isomers. This suggests that longer experiment could be necessary but this is questionable inasmuch as no trend related to the effect of CLA feeding on body composition changes was observed. However, this does not mean that CLA isomer had no effect on lipid, protein or energy metabolisms in adult rats since metabolic rates can be altered without consequence on body composition and such aspects deserve further studies to elucidate the real impact of these compounds on major metabolic pathways.
-Exercise training do not enhance the putative effects of CLA intake in our experimental conditions The ingestion of pure CLA isomers, but the t10,c12 CLA isomer to a greater extent, increased tissue lipogenic enzyme activities, decreased plasma lipid concentrations and increased plasma ketones bodies in adult Wistar rat in post-prandial conditions, without affecting adipose and hepatic tissue weights, nor adipose cellularity. From the Human experiments the conclusions are:
-CLA isomers fed as triacylglycerol are incorporated into chylomicrons to a significantly greater degree than when fed as fatty acid ethyl esters. There is no significant difference in absorption between the 9c,11t and the 10t,12c isomers. If CLA as FFA is used, the incorporation is similar to that of CLA TAG. There are palatability problems with incorporating CLA FFA into a functional food, and so, for this purpose, we would recommend the use of the triacylglycerol. However, as the absorption of CLA as TAG and FFA are similar, data obtained previously from studies using encapsulated CLA (as FFA) should be directly relevant to the use of CLA in a functional food environment. In order to study the effects of feeding CLA over longer periods, more information about the timescale and levels of absorption of CLA as the ethyl ester would be desirable.
-The effects of CLA on body composition are not consistent, for which there is no clear explanation. If anything at all, effects are much smaller than those observed in animals, while our results are also not in favor of a health claim for products specifically enriched with the c9t11- isomer or the t10c12-CLA isomer to reduce body fat mass in moderately overweight men and women. Furthermore, at present in humans there seems to be no benefit of either c9, t11 CLA or t10, c12 CLA supplementation on risk factors for cardiovascular disease or diabetes, under the experimental conditions used. Consequently no attent was made to develop further the drinkable preparation used by the volunteers for the nutritional interventions and tested for its stability.

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Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
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147 rue de l'Université
75341 Paris
France

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Participants (7)