Sep 15, 2008 7:10 pm US/Eastern
Can You Really Eat Fat To Get Thin?
Doctors, Researchers Not Convinced About CLA
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
As the obesity epidemic continues to proliferate nearly 4 million Americans weigh more than 300 pounds. In this great battle of the bulge some researchers believe they've found the key to losing weight -- eating a certain kind of fat.
It's called conjugated linoleic acid or CLA. It's a fatty acid naturally found in dairy products and some meat, in small amounts. And scientists have recently linked it to weight loss, spawning an industry of imitators anxious to cash in on overweight Americans. Dozens of brands of synthetic CLA supplements now line store shelves.
But do they really work? CBS 2 HD got the pitch from a supplement salesman on undercover camera.
"Everyone is different," a worker at a health food store told CBS 2 HD recently. "Some people see results sometimes in three weeks"
CBS 2 HD: "And the body fat will go away?"
The employee shook his head, yes.
Researchers found CLA makes the body stop storing fat while also breaking down that fat even quicker, and rats lost weight in one study.
Diabetes and obesity experts are concerned that researchers used high doses of CLA in the study.
"You cannot directly extrapolate what you see in animals at very high doses of something that is going to happen in a human being," said Dr. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, director of the NYU Obesity Research Center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital.
Even more alarming, Dr. Pi-Sunyer says using the supplement might lead to diabetes, and that researchers don't know where that lost fat actually goes.
"One thing that may happen is you redistribute it, possibly in the liver," Dr. Pi-Sunyer said. "I don't know of a single study that shows the affect on losing weight."
And that is leaving consumers skeptical.
"I'd rather work out and do it naturally," Kim King said.
Despite the numerous questions, some European countries are already selling food with CLA added to it and here in the U.S. it is being considered for fortification in milk and yogurt.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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