Chemically-interesterified (CIE) fats are trans-fat free and are increasingly being used as\nan alternative to hydrogenated oils for food manufacturing industries to optimize their productsâ??\ncharacteristics and nutrient compositions. The metabolic effects of CIE fats on insulin activity, lipids,\nand adiposity in humans are not well established. We investigated the effects of CIE fats rich\nin palmitic (C16:0, IEPalm) and stearic (C18:0, IEStear) acids on insulin resistance, serum lipids,\napolipoprotein concentrations, and adiposity, using C16:0-rich natural palm olein (NatPO) as the\ncontrol. We designed a parallel, double-blind clinical trial. Three test fats were used to prepare\ndaily snacks for consumption with a standard background diet over a period of 8 weeks by three\ngroups of a total of 85 healthy, overweight adult volunteers. We measured the outcome variables at\nweeks 0, 6, and at the endpoint of 8. After 8 weeks, there was no significant difference in surrogate\nbiomarkers of insulin resistance in any of the IE fat diets (IEPalm and IEStear) compared to the\nNatPO diet. The change in serum triacylglycerol concentrations was significantly lower with the\nIEStear diet, and the changes in serum leptin and body fat percentages were significantly lower in the\nNatPO-diet compared to the IEPalm diet. We conclude that diets containing C16:0 and C18:0-rich\nCIE fats do not affect markers of insulin resistance compared to a natural C16:0-rich fat (NatPO) diet.\nHigher amounts of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and longer chain SFAs situated at the sn-1,3 position\nof the triacylglycerol (TAG) backbones resulted in less weight gain and lower changes in body fat\npercentage and leptin concentration to those observed in NatPO and IEStear.
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