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.

Why Putting Butter In Your Coffee Is Healthy

Read Time: [8-9 minutes] 

Who doesn't love a nice hot cup of coffee first thing in the morning to not only jump-start their day but also their colon? What if you could "upgrade" it and make it into a fat-burning, brain-charging beverage?

Please, continue...

Here's a brief history lesson on coffee first:

Coffee cultivation began around the 15th century in southern Arabia. The Sufi shrines of Yemen are the earliest known place where coffee-drinking was an everyday thing¹.

Coffee from the Sufi shrines of  Mocha, Yemen

Coffee comes from the Arabic word "qua," which literally means "power, energy"².

Believe it or not, green coffee beans are one of the highest traded agricultural products in the world³.

Perhaps, Dr. Oz played a small role in that?

In order to "upgrade" your coffee you will need two things:

1. 100% grass-fed butter.

2. Organic, virgin coconut oil.

Bulletproof Coffee gets all the credit for this idea, but charging $40 for about a month's supply of their coffee⁴ is straight-up highway robbery. They also don't even include the research done on the ingredients listed in their products or even cite anything that correlates with the ridiculous claims they make.

Bulletproof Coffee

They even state that their Brain Octane Oil is "18x Stronger" than Coconut Oil. That's cool and all, but where are the lab tests done to prove this? Nowhere on their website does it state any of these bogus claims used to falsely advertise their products.

After a thorough search on their website, all I could find was an online sign-up to participate in their "research" at Stanford University, where they compare Bulletproof Coffee vs. regular coffee. Keep in mind that you have to first buy all the necessary supplies to participate. Don't you worry, though, the first 100 to sign-up get a free bag of their precious coffee?

I get to be apart of scientific research and get my caffeine fix?! Wow, what a great deal! 

Calm down and wait just a second. If you follow their sign-up link, you'll notice the page is not even dated. Who knows if they already reached their "first 100" participant count or not.

So, basically, what you're saying is it's just a cheap way to gather a bunch of emails? 

You can be the judge of that.

Okay, I get it. Bulletproof isn't foolproof and it's basically a huge marketing scheme. Where's the best place to buy these ingredients then?

I get my grass-fed butter at the local supermarket for $6 (Kerrygold) and my coconut oil in a gallon tub off amazon for $60. This will last for a while and save you tons of money per serving.

Kerrygold grass-fed butter

So, why grass-fed butter? Can't I just spray that butter mist that Fabio endorses on my coffee?

I can't believe it's not butter!

Remember, when cows eat grass instead of grains, they produce CLA. So, not only are you getting the fat-burning capabilities^5,6,7 from the CLA inside the butter, but you're also getting a darn good creamer too.

(Please remember, this is the naturally sourced CLA, NOT the highly processed, synthetically derived safflower oil that is manufactured by supplement companies.)

To be honest, a tablespoon each of grass-fed butter and coconut oil might be the best thing you will ever put in your coffee. Give it a shot tomorrow morn --

Wait a second! My teacher told me coconut oil is full of HORRIBLE saturated fats!!!! 

Calm yourself and listen carefully...

Yes, coconut oil comprises 95% saturated fats, but not all saturated fats are created equal. 

You see, it all depends on their carbon chain length. There are short, medium, and long-chain triglycerides. Each one of these is metabolized differently in the body.

The Fat Pyramid

Short-chains have less than 6 carbon's and are rapidly absorbed by the liver. They are extremely healthy for the body's gastrointestinal tract as they may cut the risk of certain types of colon cancers⁹.

A good source of this type of fat is the omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid or ALA. This fatty acid is found in the dietary fiber in plant foods such as chia seeds and flaxseeds. The fiber from these sources ferment in the large intestine and produce several products, one being butyrate. 

Recent studies have shown butyrate to reduce the chance of colon cancer by nourishing the mucosa in the colon and promoting cell apoptosis^10, also known as programmed cell death. Apoptosis can also occur from consuming CLA¹¹. 

This is a critical bodily process that needs to be properly regulated. Too much, and you have atrophy or wasting away of tissue. Too little, and you have uncontrolled cell proliferation or growth, which can lead to cancer.

Well, that's some great info on short-chain fats! I'm sure the long-chain are even better because they're longer, right?

I'm sorry, my friend, but they are the complete opposite in terms of the word "healthy."

Long-chain triglycerides have 16 or more carbons and are metabolized differently than short-chains.

An example of a long-chain would be America's favorite rapeseed oil, better known as canola oil. The "can" part stands for Canada, and "ola" means oil¹².

Hey, that's what my mom cooks with!

Yes, it is often cooked with since it was deemed a "healthy" alternative to butter years ago as it has unsaturated fats, which are high in omega-3 fatty acids. The process from which canola oil is made literally destroys all the healthy omega-3's and leaves you with a nice big bottle of processed oil with a ton of omega-6 long-chain fatty acids. 

So, what happens if you eat a diet that's full of these omega-6 fatty acids?

When you eat a diet with a greater ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, you can literally shift your body's physiological state in the tissues toward the cause of many chronic diseases we see today. These include prothrombotic, proinflammatory, and proconstrictive¹³. An excess of omega-6's from canola oil and other highly processed vegetable oils can actually interfere with the tremendous health benefits of omega-3's because they compete for the same enzymatic pathways. Believe it or not, the average ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in the Western diet is about 16:1¹⁴.

For your body to metabolize these long-chain fats, it needs bile salts. Once they are digested, they are then absorbed into the lymphatic system and packaged into chylomicrons transporting these fatty acids to yummy adipose tissue for storage. This is where "burning off fat" comes from, but who wants to add fat to their body only to burn it off later? Why not just directly burn it as soon as you consume it?

Medium chains do this and are absorbed directly into the bloodstream. They are then shipped to the liver to be metabolized for energy via Beta-Oxidation. They are not stored in those delicious love handles because they are readily used to make energy.

Coconut oil is full of these Medium-chain Triglycerides or MCTs. Same with avocados, but don't go brewing up a guacamole espresso anytime soon. The taste is no Bueno.

The benefits of consuming MCTs are absolutely endless. From fat loss^15,16 to helping with diabetes¹⁷, MCTs are a must to consume every day in your diet. 

MCT's are naturally found in coconut oil

In one of the fat loss studies^15, a university hospital in Sweden performed a double-blind study where they took 66 obese women with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more and divided them into three separate groups. 

All the groups were placed on an isoenergetic (578.5 kcal) very low-calorie diet (VLCD), combined with either MCTs, LCTs, or low-fat and high-carbohydrate regimen. The diet was monitored over 4 weeks. The participant's body composition was measured with a DEXA scan, and their appetite/satiety was recorded daily. 

As you might have guessed, the MCT group showed a greater decrease in body weight, especially during the first 2 weeks. Hunger feelings were also less intense while satiety (feeling of fullness) was increased.

Wow, so these medium chain fats are the best then?

That's right. Besides the kind help with weight loss, MCTs have been shown in recent research to help treat Alzheimer's^18,19 and help with memory support^20, so make sure to tell gramps that. Don't worry; he will get better and better at remembering to take his coconut oil as time goes on.

Lastly, coconut oil has lauric and caprylic acid. These acids have antiviral and anti-fungal properties. Lauric acid is present in breast milk, but I believe you stopped doing that years ago, I hope.

With over 100 million Americans drinking coffee and 65% of them adding cream and sugar to their cup^21, why not try this healthy alternative and substitute it with coconut oil and grass-fed butter? It'll help promote weight loss, give your brain a memory boost, and an excellent way to get your healthy fats for the day!

I truly wonder what the obesity rates would look like in America if adopted at all Starbucks...