Abstract
It is well established that the n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids influence lipid metabolism and reduce the serum triacylglycerol level. We previously reported that a dietary diacylglycerol rich in α-linolenic acid (ALA-DAG) significantly reduced body fat. In this study, we investigated the effects of the ingestion of ALA-DAG (2 g/day) for 12 weeks on body fat (test 1), lipid metabolism after ingestion for 6 weeks (test 2), and resting metabolism after ingestion for 6 weeks (test 3). The visceral fat area determined by computed tomography decreased significantly (11.3%, p<0.05) in test 1. The triacylglycerol level in VLDL fraction of serum decreased significantly (12.7%, p<0.05) in test 2 and the resting metabolism calculated from oxygen consumption increased significantly (17.3%, p<0.05) in test 3. These results suggested that ALA-DAG reduced visceral fat via the suppression of triacylglycerol synthesis and the enhanced oxidation of fatty acids in the human body.
