Benefits of Stearic Acid

[Guest guest]

Tallow 'magic ingredient' in promising cholesterol fighter

September 16, 2004

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Imagine a cholesterol-lowering hot fudge sundae. Tim Carr, a

University of Nebraska-Lincoln nutrition scientist, envisions all

sorts of foods with cholesterol-fighting power. He's working on a

potential food additive that could turn such dreams into reality. He

has developed a compound that packs more cholesterol-lowering power

than similar commercially available plant-based food additives and

should be easier to incorporate into foods. Carr's new compound

outperformed plant-based additives in animal studies. Preliminary

research also indicates it works at least as well as widely

prescribed cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. And raw materials come

from two abundant Nebraska products -- soybeans and beef tallow.

Scientists have long known that plant substances called sterols help

reduce blood cholesterol. However, sterols don't dissolve in water.

Mixing sterols with oil or fat improves their solubility but has

limited their use to higher fat foods such as margarine or salad

dressings. That snag bothered Carr. " Here we have this nice

ingredient for lowering cholesterol but we can only deliver it in

high-fat foods, " the university Institute of Agriculture and Natural

Resources researcher said. " What's wrong with this picture? " Carr

studies the role of various fats in heart disease. His earlier

research revealed that stearic acid, a saturated fat found in beef

tallow and some other fats, actually lowers cholesterol. " I've built

on that earlier discovery of the good saturated fats, " he said. He

devised a way to blend specific amounts of stearic acid with plant

sterols.

" The magic ingredient or what I'm calling beneficial saturated fat

is stearic acid, " he said. Combining stearic acid-rich beef tallow

with soybean-derived sterols boosts the cholesterol-lowering power.

Commercially available plant sterol additives are gooey, sticky

substances. They stick to food manufacturing equipment.

Carr's compound is easily made into a powder that theoretically

could be added to diverse foods, from breakfast cereals and drinks

to dairy products and even chocolate.

" We think this powder is going to be much easier to work with and

have a much broader application, " he said.

Carr is testing his compound's effectiveness in animal studies and

exploring how best to commercialize it to benefit consumers. The

university is patenting this technology.

So far, results are impressive.

Carr's College of Education and Human Sciences team compared his

compound to a commercially available plant sterol product in hamster

feeding trials. The compound lowered LDL, or bad, cholesterol about

70 percent, compared with 10 percent using the commercial sterol

additive.

While hamsters are a good model for humans, they aren't people. Carr

hopes to get funding for human clinical studies.

Commercial plant sterol additives and the team's plant

sterol/stearic acid compound both work by blocking cholesterol

absorption in the small intestine. Typically, the body absorbs 50-60

percent of cholesterol in the gastrointestinal tract, he said.

Excess cholesterol winds up in blood where it can contribute to

heart disease.

" With our compound, absorption is in the 3 to 5 percent range, " Carr

said. " That's highly effective. "

Carr is in the midst of a hamster study comparing the compound to a

commercial statin drug.

" Our preliminary data indicates that it's as good or better than the

statin drugs, " he said. He'll have more definitive answers later

this year.

Americans take about 2 million daily doses of statins, such as

Lipitor, making them the nation's most widely prescribed drugs, Carr

said. Statins help millions lower their cholesterol, but there is

some concern about their potential for liver and muscle damage.

If the new compound proves effective in further studies, it might

provide a new cholesterol management tool.

" The beauty of this is that our compound passes right through the GI

tract and takes cholesterol with it. It's never absorbed into the

body so there are no toxicity issues, " he said.

This research is conducted in cooperation with the university's

Agricultural Research Division.

Mike