Over the last 30 years, people worldwide have made a fundamental change in the foods they eat. In an effort to guard against the negative effects of heavy fat intake, people now eat significantly less beef and dairy fats than they did just a few years ago. Despite all of this, people are steadily gaining weight. In the United States alone, the number of Americans who are at least 20 pounds overweight has grown from 25% in 1985 to more than 34% today.

 The amount of CONJUGATED LINOLEIC ACID (CLA) in the American diet has been lowered due to changes in the way we eat and in how farmers are raising their cattle. This can be seen as a contradiction: we are consuming less CLA, but we are also seeing a large increase in obesity.

 We get 80% less CLA in our diets today for two reasons. Today, cows are seldom pasture grazed. Instead, they are fed foods (grains and soy), which result in decreased CLA production. Secondly, we also eat less red meat and dairy fats, which also reduces the amount of CLA in our diets.

 

  How CLA Works:

 CLA "inhibits" the body's ability to store fat. A recent scientific study shows CLA's ability to inhibit lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme which breaks down fat globules in the blood so that fat cells can more readily absorb it and store it as body fat. The inhibition of lipoprotein lipase results in reduced fat deposition.

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