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Saturated fats come in three general classifications: long, medium, and
short chain fatty acids. Specific fatty acids fall into one of those three classifications. Humans normally ingest long-chain saturated fats. Short chain normally come from bacterial metabolism of fiber, and because the human lower intestine is so short, not many of these get produced by humans. To contrast, a gorilla has a massively long lower intestine, and the huge amounts of fiber a gorilla consumes becomes a significant amount of short chain fatty acids, and that in turn becomes a significant part of caloric intake for the gorilla. For a while now, there has been a way to extract medium chain fatty acids from coconuts and palm kernel oil, and this gets sold as MCT oil. Does anyone know if there is a commercially viable way to extract short chain fatty acids, and if yes is this available for human consumption? -- W |
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On Saturday, January 25, 2014 5:02:42 PM UTC-6, W wrote:
[snip] Which short chain fatty acids? Acetic acid (sold as vinegar)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetic_acid Formic acid (stings enough few people want any)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formic_acid Propanoic acid (sometimes used as a preservative in food)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propanoic_acid Butyric acid (found naturally in milk)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyric_acid And so as the chains extend. The bacteria in your large intestine tend to produce these. |
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"Robert Miles" wrote in message
... On Saturday, January 25, 2014 5:02:42 PM UTC-6, W wrote: [snip] Which short chain fatty acids? Acetic acid (sold as vinegar)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetic_acid Just to clarify, I am interested in short chain fatty acids that are ingestible foods. Medium chain fatty acids like MCT oil do well as a food source, and I assume short chain fatty acids would also be benign when ingested. So I'm looking for foods. As the article you quote on acetic acid says "Unlike longer-chain carboxylic acids (the fatty acids), acetic acid does not occur in natural triglycerides." So it's not a short chained fatty acid of the type associated with food digestion. Formic acid (stings enough few people want any)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formic_acid Propanoic acid (sometimes used as a preservative in food)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propanoic_acid Butyric acid (found naturally in milk)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyric_acid And so as the chains extend. The bacteria in your large intestine tend to produce these. Butryic acid is certainly one of the ones I have read about. The amounts in butter are fairly trivial, about 3% or 4%, so that's not a major caloric source of that fat. (Of course dairy may be the only natural source in any whole food, but I was asking has anyone created a processed food that concentrates ingestible short chain fatty acids, such as butryic.) I also realize this can be created as a fermentation product of starchy fibers in the large intestine. Unfortunately, homo sapiens have lost about 80% of their large intestine through evolution, and the actual remaining large intestine area is insufficient to create large quantities of short chain fatty acids. This is in contrast to an animal like a gorilla, who still has massively more long intestine and is able to ferment large amounts of fiber into very significant caloric intake of short chain fatty acids. So in the same way that manufacturers have started to create processed medium chain fatty acids in the form of MCT Oil (derived primarily from the Lauric acid in coconuts and palm kernel oil), I was wondering if anyone has concentrated the short chain fatty acids in any natural source and started to sell a concentrated food oil that contains those fatty acids. Why bother with such things? Short and medium chain fatty acids have a different fat metabolism and are extremely easy to digest, particularly for people who have compromised food metabolism. They go straight to the liver and create ketones, thus nourishing the brain and reducing somewhat the body's need for glucose. -- W |
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On 2014-01-25 23:02:42 +0000, W said:
Saturated fats come in three general classifications: long, medium, and short chain fatty acids. Specific fatty acids fall into one of those three classifications. Humans normally ingest long-chain saturated fats. Short chain normally come from bacterial metabolism of fiber, and because the human lower intestine is so short, not many of these get produced by humans. To contrast, a gorilla has a massively long lower intestine, and the huge amounts of fiber a gorilla consumes becomes a significant amount of short chain fatty acids, and that in turn becomes a significant part of caloric intake for the gorilla. For a while now, there has been a way to extract medium chain fatty acids from coconuts and palm kernel oil, and this gets sold as MCT oil. Does anyone know if there is a commercially viable way to extract short chain fatty acids, and if yes is this available for human consumption? Maybe not what you are looking for, but here's a study showing how the inclusion of polydextrose in the diet increases the production of SCFAs in the gut (among other things). http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/72/6/1503.full -- Bill O'Meally |
#5
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Suppliers to organic chemistry labs are likely to sell the short chained fatty acids, not necessarily food grade.
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