New Symposium to Highlight Benefits of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA)
CLA is a fatty acid derived from natural safflower oil and is known for a range of health benefits, namely optimizing body composition in humans and restoring CLA in cows to levels present as if they were pasture-fed.
17 Aug 2012 --- The world’s top researchers in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) will present their newest findings on this important nutrient for both humans and animals on August 21 from 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. during the prestigious American Chemical Society national conference at the Loews Hotel in Philadelphia, PA, in Commonwealth B, second floor.
CLA is a fatty acid derived from natural safflower oil and is known for a range of health benefits, namely optimizing body composition in humans and restoring CLA in cows to levels present as if they were pasture-fed.
The symposium co-sponsored by BASF, “CLA: A Naturally-Occurring, Anti-Obesity, Anti-Inflammatory Fatty Acid,” is being held in honor of Michael W. Pariza, Ph.D., widely recognized as the founder of the modern field of CLA research. The anti-cancer properties of CLA, and many of the other known biological activities of CLA were discovered in his laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in the laboratory of his collaborator, Mark Cook, Ph.D.
“It is most gratifying to see the emerging clinical research on the positive effects of CLA in humans, for example reducing body fat while maintaining lean muscle, enhancing the immune system, and other potential benefits,” Pariza said. “Important applications of CLA in animal agriculture include improving the vitality of dairy cows, and potentially reducing the need for antibiotics in poultry. This is an exciting time for CLA research.”
Emeritus Professor of Food Science and Emeritus Director of the university’s Food Research Institute, Pariza has received numerous academic honors and awards. The symposium is named in his honor as recipient of the 2011 Kenneth A. Spencer Award. Attendees are also invited to join Pariza and fellow speakers at a reception and banquet following the symposium at the nearby Penn’s View Hotel (a limited numbers of tickets for the banquet are available at the Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry table at the Loews Hotel).
For the human nutrition market, BASF Nutrition & Health supplies Tonalin, a leading ingredient brand of CLA for foods, beverages and dietary supplements. For the animal nutrition market, BASF supplies Lutrell and Lutalin CLA for livestock, of which Lutalin CLA is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in fattening pigs while approval for dairy cows is imminent.
“BASF is proud to co-sponsor this first event of its kind in the science of CLA and we congratulate Dr. Pariza, his colleagues and CLA researchers worldwide on their outstanding work,” said Samy Jandali, Vice President, Nutrition & Health, BASF Corporation, North America. “Through their CLA studies, these scientific leaders are helping to make fantastic strides in fighting obesity and, improving overall human and animal vitality, so we can all eat and live a little better.”
Jandali added that the symposium fits perfectly with this year’s ACS theme, “Materials for Health and Medicine.”
Moderating the CLA symposium is the FDA’s Lauren Jackson, Research Food Technologist and Team Leader, Division of Food Processing Science and Technology, Institute for Food Safety and Health.
CLA symposium presentations include:
• - “Synthesis of CLA isomers and their effect on milk fat production” by Dale Bauman , Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
• - “CLA and its effect on dairy cow fertility with emphasis on low level inflammatory processes” by Giuseppe Bertoni , Paolo Grossi, Erminio Trevisi, Istituto di Zootecnica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy.
• - “Isomers of conjugated linoleic acid as important nutrients in the dairy cow” by Kevin Shingfield , MTT Agrifood Research, Jokioinen, Hame, Finland.
• - “CLA's role in biochemical processes” by Yeonhwa Park , Yooheon Park, Jun Ho Kim, Jonggun Kim, Heeseok Lee, Department of Food Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
• - “Dietary CLA reduces clinical signs of acute and chronic inflammatory disease” by Mark Cook, Animal Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.
• - “CLA in obesity” by Leah Whigham , USDAARS Human Nutrition Research Center, Grand Forks, ND.
• - “CLA in cardiovascular disease” by Robert Nicolosi , Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Connecticut-Storrs,Storrs, CT.
• - “Perspectives on CLA” by Mike Pariza, Department of Food Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.
The symposium is also sponsored by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the ACS’s Agricultural and Food Chemistry and Agrochemicals Divisions, and ACS Kansas City Section.
