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Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
July 28, 2015
Does this mean that we can now eat butter without guilt?
No, it does not.
“Butter may have both good and bad saturated fats but it is always best to check with your physician before making changes to your diet.”
What this study has done is give new insight into controlling diabetes.
The researchers are hopeful that controlled doses of this saturated fat called heptadecanoic acid may help reverse pre-diabetes in humans soon.
Because of the popularity of fish-based omega-3 fatty acids as a human health supplement, the team from the US National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF) assessed fatty acid blood levels in 49 dolphins as well as in their dietary fish.
“We were surprised to find that among the 55 fatty acids studied, the saturated fat heptadecanoic acid appeared to have had the most beneficial impact on dolphin metabolism,” said Stephanie Venn-Watson, director of NMMF’s translational medicine and research program.
Dolphins with higher levels of heptadecanoic acid in their blood had lower insulin and triglycerides, he said.
The study also showed that while some fish have high levels of heptadecanoic acid other fish types had none.
Six dolphins with low heptadecanoic acid were then fed fish high in this fatty acid. Within six months on the new diet, indicators of metabolic syndrome in dolphins, including elevated insulin, glucose, and triglycerides normalized.
Key to this surprising outcome was reversal of high ferritin, an underlying precursor to metabolic syndrome.
The fish with the highest heptadecanoic acid content was mullet.
“We hypothesise that widespread movement away from whole fat dairy products in human populations may have created unanticipated heptadecanoic acid deficiencies,” Venn-Watson contended.
“This dietary deficiency may be playing a role in the global diabetes pandemic,” he warned in a paper that appeared in the journal PLOS ONE.
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
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