The impact of arachidonic acid, an omega-6 polyunsaturated fat found only in animal products, upon human health remains mostly misunderstood, according to an article released by Purdue University. Researchers aim to study the subject further.
Led by James Markworth, assistant professor of animal sciences, the team will carefully test the health effects of omega-6 in laboratory experiments. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will fund the research and the experiments will clarify which omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil and seafood are responsible for yielding their health benefits.
“These polyunsaturated fatty acids are essential because you need to acquire them through the diet,” Markworth says. “They can’t be made in the body. And in particular it’s the long-chain versions, which are found in products of animal or marine origin, that are thought to potentially influence human health.”
Both omega-3 and omega-6 are long-chain, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and some of these fatty acids are also essential fatty acids.
The long-chain omega-6 fat arachidonic acid is found only in meat, poultry and eggs. “You can’t get it from vegetable sources, and you can’t get it from fish. We think that these nutrients found in meat and poultry products might have similar benefits as, say, fish oil or fish products. And that’s something you don’t hear very often,” Markworth says.
Previous research has well established that fish oil fatty acids have metabolic benefits. But which fatty acids convey those benefits and how remains unclear. The major ones are eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
Collaborating with Markworth on the project are: Tzu-Wen Cross in the College of Health and Human Sciences, along with Tim Johnson and Kolapo Ajuwon, both in the College of Agriculture’s Department of Animal Sciences.
“What we’re suggesting is when you eat these lipids in the diet or dietary supplements, the systemic response your body has might depend on the resident microbes first encountered in the gastrointestinal tract,” Markworth says. “And we’re proposing that the systemic response is largely mediated by the effect on the skeletal muscle.”
Markworth notes the skeletal muscle determines metabolic health, obesity and diabetes as it is the largest site of glucose disposal and insulin sensitivity.
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