Eat Candy, Lose Weight

The New Candy Diet? Hold the infomercials. You won't be seeing your favorite stars hyping a new diet fad--not yet. However, a recent breakthrough in the dietary supplement industry will allow this idea to become a reality in the near future. The breakthrough involves an essential fatty acid called CLA that is used by the body to aid in burning fat.

CLA, Conjugated Linoleic Acid, reduces body fat in two ways: by helping the body to release fat into the blood stream to be burned as fuel; and by restricting the formation of fat cells so that they are not deposited in the body. CLA used to be a natural part of our diet–found in our milk and meat. However, cattle need an enzyme found in grasses to produce CLA. Once we started feeding our livestock grains and fish meal, CLA was lost from our diet. Scientists have linked the loss of CLA from our diet to the rise in breast cancer, and suspect a link to the rise in obesity.

CLA is currently manufactured in oil form. It can be found in your local vitamin store encapsulated in a soft gel capsule (similar to vitamin E). Recently, however, scientists have developed a stable powder form of CLA. This form will allow CLA to be included in, among other products, meal replacements, protein shakes and nutrition bars. Nutrition companies like Experimental and Applied Sciences, Inc. (EAS) are already developing such products.

Research has shown that people taking 1000 mg of CLA three times a day over three months lose 15% to 20% of their body fat. Perhaps more significantly, once people stopped taking the CLA they regained weight, but 55% of the weight they gained was muscle. To put this statistic in perspective, a control group of people on a similar diet but without taking CLA regained weight that was 75% body fat. As an additional benefit to athletes, CLA has been shown to increase strength gains in weight-lifting programs.

How does it work? First, CLA inhibits the enzyme that breaks down fat globules in the blood. When fat is not broken down, adipocyte (fat cell) uptake is reduced, and fats pass through the body instead of accumulating. Second, CLA increases the activity of lipase, a hormone-sensitive enzyme that metabolizes stored fat cells. Fatty reserves are returned to the blood stream, where they are used by the muscles for energy. This action is significant to both dieters and bodybuilders.