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Rosemont, IL – That golden pat of butter melting on warm toast might offer more than its sweet, complementary dairy taste. Some day, it might help consumers meet an RDA for conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a naturally occurring fatty acid found in some dairy products. Preliminary research indicates CLA may deliver health benefits for humans ranging from cancer inhibition to weight loss. Researchers are working to unlock the secrets of CLA – its source, its construction and its claims.

CLA is a free fatty acid naturally present in cow's milk and certain animal meats, particularly beef and lamb. Researchers believe potential health properties are linked to its molecular construction. CLA has double bonds at carbon atoms 10 and 12, or 9 and 11. The cis-9, trans-11 isomer present in milk-related CLA might hold anti-cancer properties or positively impact bone health.

Scientists have been studying this lipid since the 1970s. Although the sports nutrition market and certain health food outlets leapt onto this CLA bandwagon early on, offering dietary supplements containing a form of CLA, research moves at a more cautious pace in an effort to establish sound scientific facts. Several studies funded by America's dairy farmers and managed by Dairy Management Inc.( (DMI) are slowly fitting together the jigsaw puzzle of availability and health properties of CLA in dairy products.

According to Doug DiRienzo, director of nutrition research for DMI, "Taking a methodical approach, our goal is to determine if health benefits attributed to CLA can be demonstrated when the source of CLA is dairy-derived. Further, we are trying to determine the amount of CLA required to produce these benefits."

At Cornell University, in collaboration with the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, researchers used animal models to discover that CLA-enriched butter had a positive impact in reducing the incidence of mammary tumors in rats. Other, collaborative studies on the positive health benefits specific to dairy-derived CLA are being conducted as a collaborative effort between the National Dairy Council (NDC), the Dairy Research and Development Corporation of Australia, and the Dairy Farmers of Canada, using facilities in Helsinki, Finland. Their study seeks to determine whether trans-11 isomers in dairy foods are precursors to CLA.

Why Turn to Dairy?
Compared to all other foods, dairy products contain the highest native food source of CLA. Microbes produce CLA in a cow's stomach, which then translates into the milk. CLA levels in milk or dairy products can be enhanced in two ways – at the source, and in the end product.
Researchers discovered that cows eating pasture, or grass, produce more CLA than cows eating grain, or other types of feed. Dairy scientists at the University of Wisconsin – Madison found that by manipulating the feed, cows can yield up to five times more CLA in their milk than cows fed a standard diet.

In addition, scientists funded through the Northeast Dairy Foods Research Center (NDFRC) at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., discovered that by altering the rumen environment to favor bacteria-producing CLA and combining that with special dietary supplements, they can help increase the CLA content in milkfat by 200%-400%.

Secondly, CLA can be extracted from milkfat and used to enrich CLA content of dairy products such as cheese and butter. At the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research (WCDR) Madison, Wisc., researchers are studying methods of enriching products with CLA. This can be accomplished by either replacing some of the fatty acid residues naturally present in the triglycerides in milkfat, or by adding synthetic glycerides containing CLA residues to butter or milkfat-rich dairy products. They are also examining whether adding the bacteria Lactobacillus ruteri to dairy product formulations might enhance yield of the desired cis-9, trans-11 isomers through bioconversion.

Further research is required in most of these areas to determine whether enhanced levels of CLA or potential health benefits are transferable to the human system.

For more information about dairy farmer funded research projects about CLA, contact our technical support hotline at 1-800-248-8829.

Dairy Management Inc.( (DMI) is the domestic and international planning and management organization responsible for increasing demand for dairy products on behalf of America's dairy farmers. DMI manages the American Dairy Association(, National Dairy Council( and the U.S. Dairy Export Council.

Source: Dairy Management Inc.