For the low price of $24.87, weight loss hopefuls can buy CLA 750, a supplement from Jarrow Formulas derived from isomers of conjugated linoleic acid, a chemical known to reduce body fat levels 30 to 70 percent in mice.
Unfortunately, there is little evidence to prove these fat loss catalysts offer humans a similar benefit.
The supposed superchemical is one of the many isomers of CLA, which is a group of related fatty acids found naturally in red meat, lamb and dairy products.
Since its discovery nearly 20 years ago, researchers worldwide, including two from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, have examined CLA's seemingly remarkable effects.
Jess Miner, an associate professor of animal science, and Michael Fromm, director of UNL's Center for Biotechnology, have spent the past three years analyzing the effect CLA has on mice.
The UNL researchers are confident CLA causes substantial fat loss in mice (some of their rodent subjects lost more than half their body fat in less than a month while on a CLA-enriched diet), but they are still unsure how the acid causes the change.
They believe CLA somehow prevents fat cells from storing as much triglyceride, the chemical form of most fat within the body.
In order to find out how fat loss occurs, the researchers are scrutinizing 20,000 to 30,000 genes at a time to understand the pathway through which CLA works, Fromm said.
Though both Fromm and Miner agree CLA is responsible for fat reduction in the mice, neither is confident the acid's advantages translate to humans.
"It's important to emphasize trials have not shown any significant fat loss (in humans)," Fromm said.
The tests Fromm is referring to are high in number, but low in terms of meaningful results.
A study published in the July 2000 issue of Lipids journal looked at the effects CLA had on the body compositions and energy expenditures of 17 adult women who were given three grams of CLA (in capsule form) per day for 64 days.
"Healthy adult women ... showed no significant change in FFM (fat-free mass), fat mass or percentage body fat compared to the placebo group," the report concluded.
However, a study in the May 2007 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that, in fact, there is a slight benefit from CLA supplementation in the diet.
This report drew conclusions from the results of 18 previous studies.
"CLA does indeed cause a modest, but significant, reduction in fat loss," the study stated.
The decrease is about .2 pounds per week, slightly more than 12 pounds per year.
The UNL researchers are hoping to learn how the acids work in mice so that one day the same fat loss might be effectively stimulated in humans to combat the American obesity epidemic.
CLA research may also lead to other developments.
Learning to manipulate body fat deposits in cattle and pigs could have a direct effect on the quality of the products produced by livestock.
Because the CLA isomer that causes fat loss is expensive to synthesize in its pure form, researchers at UNL's Plant Transformation Core Research Facility are creating soybeans that will produce the acid purely.
Once yielded in bulk, the crop may be useful for feeding to livestock, which could, in turn, result in leaner, more productive animals.
Despite the fatty acid's future potential, Fromm underlined the fact that UNL's research is still basic.
"So far, (CLA) is only good if you're a mouse," he said.
teresalostroh@dailynebraskan.com
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