CLA - Discover The Secrets Supplement Companies Don't Want You To Know

Read Time: [6-7 minutes]

Okay, so what's the deal with this "all-natural" weight loss supplement called CLA that everyone is talking about? They make it seem like they just swallow a pill, and the pounds magically melt away like butter.

That's impossible, no one can swallow a Mercedes whole.

2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA

Not the Mercedes CLA, but Conjugated Linoleic Acid or better known as CLA.

So, it's not the thing found at the dealership down the street?

No, I'm afraid not. CLA is actually a newly discovered "good fat" that has shown potential in recent animal studies to be a potent cancer fighter. In fact, small amounts have shown to not only block all three stages of cancer: 1) initiation, 2) promotion, and 3) metastasis, but also slow the growth of skin, breast, prostate, and colon cancer. (1) 

Most of the anti-cancer agents that are currently on the market block only ONE of these stages. CLA has also been found to inhibit chemically induced cancer in rats. (2, 3)

The current human CLA research is still relatively new. According to a recent Finnish survey, women with the most CLA in their diets had a 60 percent reduction in breast cancer risk. (4)

So, who makes this magic? 

CLA naturally comes from ruminant animals, such as cows and sheep, where the bacteria in their stomachs ferment their food and make it into this natural trans fatty acid.

GROSS! Trans fats are horrible for your health!!

That is very true, but CLA is the exception here. Unlike other trans fatty acids, CLA  is conjugated, so there may be beneficial effects on human health, as mentioned above.

Cattle eating corn silage

Just please make sure you buy grass-fed animal products, not grain-fed ones. In fact, there's up to 500 percent more CLA in animals that eat grass as opposed to that nasty grain silage. (5) 

If grass-fed animal products are the best sources why does my friend's bottle of CLA say "safflower oil"?

Bottle of Censor® containing Tonalin CLA

Great observation. Unfortunately, many people currently take a synthetic version that is widely promoted as an "all-natural fat burner." All current supplements use 'safflower oil' as their source of CLA.

Safflower oil

The overall "fat-burning" research on CLA is actually inferior and unreliable. In almost all diet studies, the weight loss was pretty negligible, if there was any at all. 

One study in China took 63 overweight and obese people and put them on 1.7g of CLA (t10c12 isomer). The obese group (BMI >27) had the "best results" with a whopping 0.69kg loss over 12 weeks. Yes, this is positive, but statistically speaking, it is not clinically significant at all. What's worse is at the end of the study, a blood sample analysis was performed, and it showed their total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, and plasma fasting glucose INCREASED while their HDL cholesterol DECREASED. (6)

Another double-blind study found that doses above 3.4g of CLA for 12 weeks (3.4, 5.1, 6.4 grams) were associated with negligible decreases in fat mass and increases in lean body mass in overweight and obese participants. I say the word 'negligible' because it was. 

           CLA on body fat mass and lean body mass

The most dramatic numbers were seen with 3.4g and were a killer -1.73kg fat mass with +1.26kg lean mass. (7)

Wow, that's a little disappointing.

Tell me about it. So you can take those safflower soft-gels, and they might make you lose enough fat to compensate for that one cookie you had last night. But just don't expect to see a significant amount of weight loss that many of these supplement companies claim.

I honestly don't trust the safflower source of CLA (t10c12 isomer) at all. If the first study I mentioned wasn't enough, how about the one where they took 60 obese males and gave them 3.4 g/day for 12 weeks, INCREASED insulin resistance, and glycemia REDUCED HDL "good" cholesterol. The placebo showed no change in these levels, and the weight loss numbers were not significantly different. (8)

So, are CLA supplements a decent fat-burner or what? 

No. With the current research, I'd say it's more of a money burner, if anything.

If that's the case why do supplement companies use safflower instead of grass-fed animal sources?

Because a flower is CHEAPER to source from than a grass-fed animal. In their defense, it honestly is tough to squeeze a grass-fed filet mignon in a pill. Oh well. 

What supplements can I take that WORK then?

You can start by drinking grass-fed whey protein shakes, which are a great natural source of CLA and have much higher glutathione levels than grain-fed wheys. Glutathione is actually a potent antioxidant that helps protect your muscle cells against harmful oxidation.

You can also try throwing some grass-fed butter into your coffee with coconut oil, like we talked about in my last post. Shaken, not stirred.

References

1.       Conjugated linoleic acid. A powerful anticarcinogen from animal fat sources.

Ip C, Scimeca JA, Thompson HJ.

Cancer. 1994 Aug 1;74(3 Suppl):1050-4. Review.

2.       CONJUGATED LINOLEIC ACIDS (CLA) DECREASE THE BREAST CANCER RISK IN DMBA-TREATED RATS.

Białek A, Tokarz A, Zagrodzki P.

Acta Pol Pharm. 2016 Mar-Apr;73(2):315-27.

3.       Chemometric analysis of the interactions among different parameters describing health conditions, breast cancer risk, and fatty acids profile in serum of rats supplemented with conjugated linoleic acids.

Białek A, Zagrodzki P, Tokarz A.

Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 2016 Mar;106:1-10. doi: 10.1016/j.plefa.2015.12.006. Epub 2016 Feb 5.

4.       The inverse association between dietary and serum conjugated linoleic acid and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women.

Aro A, Männistö S, Salminen I, Ovaskainen ML, Kataja V, Uusitupa M.

Nutr Cancer. 2000;38(2):151-7.

5.       Conjugated linoleic acid content of milk from cows fed different diets.

Dhiman TR, Anand GR, Satter LD, Pariza MW.

J Dairy Sci. 1999 Oct;82(10):2146-56.

6.       Effect of conjugated linoleic acid supplementation on weight loss and body fat composition in a Chinese population.

Chen SC, Lin YH, Huang HP, Hsu WL, Houng JY, Huang CK.

Nutrition. 2012 May;28(5):559-65. doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2011.09.008. Epub 2012 Jan 20.

7.       Conjugated linoleic acid reduces body fat mass in overweight and obese humans.

Blankson H, Stakkestad JA, Fagertun H, Thom E, Wadstein J, Gudmundsen O.

J Nutr. 2000 Dec;130(12):2943-8.

8.     Treatment with dietary trans10cis12 conjugated linoleic acid causes isomer-specific insulin resistance in obese men with metabolic syndrome.

Risérus U, Arner P, Brismar K, Vessby B.

Diabetes Care. 2002 Sep;25(9):1516-21.