Abstract:

Mostly a hereditary disease, the development of obesity is influenced by social, cultural, cognitive, biological and environmental factors. Obesity contributes to type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, cancer, hypertension and osteoarthritis. In recent years the use of dietary supplementations has become common and perceived as a magic power for weight loss by the patients. In literature, nearly 50 supplements and 125 commercial preparates are reported among which is also conjugated linoleic acid. Conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) are a group of octadecadionic acid isomers which are naturally found in foods, especially in dairy products. In a number of studies, the metabolic and anti-obesity activity of CLA as a group of polyunsaturated fatty acids have been emphasized. In experimental studies, besides its decreasing effect on atherosclerosis, when added to the diets of mice, CLA caused weight loss by 60 %. In human studies CLA declined body fat by increasing muscle tissue, but the observed effect was less than the expected. In this review, the properties of CLA were described and the studies on the effects of CLA on obesity were summarized

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