Last Updated: 2008-01-15 16:19:18 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Switching to a different type of cooking oil could help people pare off a pound or two, according to new research from Japan.
People who used diacylglycerol oil instead of their regular cooking oil for a year lost an average of 0.55 kilograms, or 1.2 pounds, without otherwise changing their diet or exercise habits, Hidetoshi Kawashima of the Japanese Red Cross Society, Kumamoto, and colleagues found. The heavier a person was at the beginning of the study, the greater was their reduction in body mass index.
Vegetable oils contain a small amount of diacylglycerol. Some studies suggest that consuming diacylglycerol instead of the chief component of these oils, triacylglycerol, may help reduce body fat and blood triglycerides. Tokyo-based Kao Corporation, which funded the study, makes a cooking oil consisting of 80 percent diacylglycerol.
Kawashima and colleagues randomly assigned 312 men and women to use their typical cooking oil or the Kao product. After a year, people using their normal cooking oil gained 0.31 kilograms (0.7 pounds) and added 0.11 points to their body mass index (BMI), the ratio of height to weight frequently used to determine if an individual is overweight or underweight.
In contrast, those in the diacylglycerol group lost 0.55 kilograms (1.2 pounds) and reduced their BMI by 0.21.
BMI did not significantly change in people who were at a healthy weight when the study began, while it was reduced by 0.2 in overweight individuals. BMI fell by 0.59 points in obese people, but because there were only a few obese people in the study, this was not statistically significant.
Both the control and diacylglycerol groups showed a similar reduction in their triglyceride levels.
Diacylglycerol appears to promote weight loss by helping the liver and small intestine burn fat more efficiently, the researchers note in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
"Replacing a portion of dietary triacylglycerol with diacylglycerol as part of daily life was shown to be a promising tool to control body weight for extended periods of time," they conclude.
SOURCE: Journal of the American Dietetic Association, January 2008.
Dr. Sears comments:
Diacylglycerol contains 33 percent fewer fat calories than traditional oils. However, if those fatty acids are omega-6 fatty acids, the individual will still be under constant inflammatory attack.