Diacylglycerol (diglyceride) oil reduces obesity

Diacylglycerols (also known as diglycerides) are dietary fatty acids found, in small concentrations, in many vegetable-based cooking oils, including canola and soybean oils. However, triacylglycerols, more commonly known as triglycerides, make up the vast majority of fat content in vegetable-based cooking oils. Triglycerides, which are the most common sources of dietary fat, are quickly absorbed by the body and easily converted to body fat. (High levels of triglycerides in the blood have also been linked to obesity and cardiovascular disease.)

In comparison to triglyceride fats, diglycerides are metabolized more rapidly in the human body and are less likely to deposit as body fat. In laboratory studies, dietary supplementation with diglyceride oil has been shown to reduce the accumulation of body fat in rats and improve the overall metabolism of fat energy.

A recently published clinical research study, which appears in the current issue of the Journal of Nutrition, also suggests a potential role for diglyceride oils in the prevention and treatment of obesity in humans.

In this study, 26 overweight women with elevated blood triglyceride levels participated in a "cross-over" study of dietary supplements of diglycerides oil. In the first phase of this study, these voluntary women were secretly randomized to receive vegetable oil enriched with diglycerides (Enova oil, 40 grams per day) or a mixture of oil containing standard sunflower, safflower and rapeseed oils (40 grams per day, in a 1: 1: 1 ratio) for 28 days. After a 4-week break, these volunteer patients were changed (or "crossed") to the opposite dietary oil group for an additional 28 days.

In this study, diglyceride oil supplementation did not appear to alter the overall energy metabolism, nor did it reduce blood triglyceride levels. However, daily intake of diglyceride-enriched cooking oil significantly decreased the accumulation of body fat in these overweight women during the course of this small and brief clinical research study.

While switching to diglyceride-enriched cooking oil, alone, is unlikely to completely prevent or eliminate obesity, this vegetable-based source of fat may have an important role to play as part of a health-based approach. Lifestyle and diet to maintain a healthy weight.

Now some bad news related to cooking oils enriched with diglycerides. Kao Corporation, the manufacturer of Enova oil (also sold as Econa oil), has recently suspended sales of this product due to concerns about the high levels of glycidol fatty acid esters potentially carcinogenic in this and other products enriched with diglycerides. (These same fatty acid esters are also present in other vegetable oils of vegetable origin, but at much lower concentrations.) However, hopefully, Kao Corporation or another manufacturer will find a way to reduce the concentration of glycidol fatty acid esters in diglycerides. Enriched food products, and these products will then return to the market.

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