Dairy products are also associated with lower risks of Type 2 diabetes,2 liver disease and more. One of the reasons for these health benefits is because whole-fat dairy contains health promoting compounds such as:3
Specific amino acids | Unsaturated, medium-chain, and branched-chain fats |
Odd-chain saturated fats — pentadecanoic acid (C15:0) and heptadecanoic acid (C17:0) | Phospholipids |
Vitamins and minerals | Probiotics |
Odd-Chain Saturated Fats From Dairy Are Likely Essential Fats
Of these, the odd-chain saturated fats (OCFAs) are of particular importance. In fact, recent research4 suggests these are likely one of the most essential fats in the human diet, unlike linoleic acid (LA) that most foods are loaded with. It’s virtually impossible to become deficient in LA outside of a laboratory diet.
The same cannot be said for the OCFAs. You need to get them from dairy, because that’s the primary source. As noted in the 2020 scientific report, “Efficacy of Dietary Odd-Chain Saturated Fatty Acid Pentadecanoic Acid Parallels Broad Associated Health Benefits in Humans: Could It Be Essential?”:5
Dairy Fat — It Does Your Body Good
The take-home from all of this is that diary fat is a crucial source of an essential fat — pentadecanoic acid or C15:0 — that your body needs and cannot make.
A long list of studies16,17 through the years have shown that this and other OCSFs improve mitochondrial function and increase ATP production,18 lower your risk of obesity,19 diabetes20,21,22and cardiovascular disease,23 including the risk of heart problems in diabetics,24 promote healthy hair growth,25,26 lower inflammation and much more.
While you can drink whole fat milk, it has 4% fat. Butter has 20 times the fat concentration of whole fat milk, and ghee 25 times the fat as whole fat milk. It is far easier to get these odd chain saturated fats by eating a healthy butter. Ghee is easer and has 25% more fat than butter.
A reasonable dose for most people is 1 tablespoon of butter a day. You can increase that, but it would be unwise to go over 5 tablespoons a day. Unlike raw milk, high quality butters are far more difficult to purchase commercially. About the only way you can is to purchase directly from the farmer.
If you are looking for an easier commercial solution, you can purchase 1 pound of organic ghee for about $20 a pound, including shipping.
Milk Fats Do Not Inhibit Glucose Metabolism
Interestingly, OCFAs are only partially metabolized via the beta-oxidation pathway that ECFAs use. In this pathway, fats are first converted to acetyl-CoA, which allows them to enter the Krebs Cycle. OCFAs, in contrast, are first converted into succinic acid, then succinyl-CoA, which then enters the Krebs Cycle and helps support electron transfer at complex II in the mitochondria. As explained by Georgi Dinkov, an expert on bioenergetic medicine:27
“Since rising levels of acetyl-CoA has an inhibitory effects on pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), eating a diet high in fat with mostly even-chain fats would result in reduction of glucose metabolism, even if all the fats are of the SFA type, as per the Randle Cycle.
However, if those fats are of the odd-chain species and enter the Krebs Cycle as succinic acid (i.e. without effect on the acetyl-CoA/CoA ratio), then virtually no such reduction of glucose metabolism is expected to occur and, in fact, PA [pentadecanoic acid] was described in ... Japanese studies as stimulating mitochondrial function and ATP production, which ultimately resulted in improved hair growth.
The Japanese researchers even filed a patent for treating hair-loss with PA and in that patent they opined that other odd-chain fatty acids with similar length, especially the C17:0 fat ... would have similarly beneficial effects on hair-growth through increasing mitochondrial function (OXPHOS).”
Put another way, as I’ve described in several previous articles, including “Crucial Facts About Your Metabolism,” when your fat intake is too high (likely above 35 grams or so), then your body’s ability to metabolize (burn) glucose in your mitochondria is reduced. Instead, it gets shuttled into the glycolysis pathway, which is extremely inefficient and produces far fewer ATP molecules per molecule of glucose. That’s what Dinkov is talking about here.
What’s fascinating is that OCFAs do not have this inhibiting effect on glucose burning, because they are not converted to acetyl-CoA but rather enter the Krebs Cycle as succinyl-CoA. What this means in practical terms is that you don’t need to restrict your consumption of full fat dairy, as it won’t affect your ability to burn glucose.
Equally interesting, excessive consumption of other dietary fats has been shown to lower your plasma level of C15:0 and C17:0.28 So, there are more reasons than one to make sure your total fat intake isn’t too high.
- 1 The Lancet November 24, 2018; 392(10161): 2288-2297, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31812-9, Page 2
- 2 PLOS Medicine October 10, 2018, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002670
- 3 The Lancet November 24, 2018; 392(10161): 2288-2297
- 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 Scientific Reports 2020; 10: 8161
- 7 Scientific Reports March 23, 2017; 7: Article number 44845
- 11 J Adv Pharm Technol Res October-December 2011; 2(4): 236-240
- 12, 13 Scientific Reports 2020; 10: 8161, Results
- 14 Scientific Reports 2020; 10: 8161, Oral C15:0 achieved active concentrations in vivo
- 15 Scientific Reports 2020; 10: 8161, There is supportive evidence of C15:0 as a potential essential fatty acid
- 16, 23, 27 Haidut.me December 5, 2023
- 17 Scientific Reports 2020; 10: 8161, See reference list
- 18, 25 International Journal of Cosmetic Science June 1993; 15(3): 125-131
- 19 Pediatric Obesity May 2020; 15(5):e12612
- 20 Med J Islam Repub Iran December 18, 2017; 31: 110
- 21 NPR April 18, 2016
- 22 Clinical Nutrition June 18, 2021; 40(8): 4988-4999
- 24 Deseret News July 14, 2023
- 26 J-Stage 1995; 37(6): 800-806
- 28 The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology February 2022; 143: 106135
No comments:
Post a Comment