While battling the bulge is a major goal for many people, fending off cancer may just be America's number-one health concern. And here, too, CLA has come up big in a number of studies, such as a Swedish investigation that shows a link between high CLA intake and reduced colorectal cancer risk (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 10/05). In various lab studies CLA has been shown to interfere with tumor development and to keep cancerous cells from spreading to nearby organs.
What more, CLA appears to regulate immunity by helping to strengthen the body's natural defenses while protecting against the inflammatory damage the immune response can cause. That's important because low-level inflammation has been linked to an ever-growing list of disorders, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and arthritis.
If you want to fight off both fat and cancer without eating a mountain of cheeseburgers, don't have a cow. Turn to CLA instead.
-Lisa James
