Health Benefits of Functional Food Explored

A symposium on functional foods is currently taking place in the Teagasc Moorepark Food Research Centre. It is exploring the opportunities for Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) based functional foods. National and international speakers are addressing the event in Moorepark giving a global view of CLA as a health-promoting bioactive agent in food.

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is naturally present in meat from ruminants and in dairy products and continues to receive much attention because of its potential health benefits in relation to diabetes, obesity and cancer.

Dr Catherine Staunton, from the Moorepark Food Research Centre, Teagasc said "Beneficial activities from CLA have been established in different experimental conditions. Animal and human studies on CLA isomers have demonstrated positive effects in the areas of diabetes, osteoporosis, immune function, anti-carcinogenesis, and body composition."

Significant progress has been made in recent years to explain the mechanisms by which CLAs can exert their beneficial effects. The background and insights from animal/cell culture experiments into how the mechanisms work, and clinical data relating to the safety and effectiveness of CLA in humans is being discussed at the Symposium.

Bacterial cultures that are naturally found in the human intestine, such as bifidobacteria, are also capable of making CLA. Results are being presented of recent human studies which demonstrated that eating CLA enriched cheese had beneficial effects on the plasma fatty acid profile.

The CLA content of cow's milk and meat can be increased by changing the diet of the animal. Cows and cattle fed on grass based diets with oil rich supplements produce milk and meat with higher levels of CLA. Research on studies designed to optimise CLA production in the ruminant, and the mechanistic studies on CLA synthesis in the rumen, adipose tissue and mammary gland are also being presented.