Palmitic Acid: Effect of Diet Supplementation and Occurrence in Animal Origin Food

In the last few decades, disagreement between opinions and findings concerning the ability of palmitic acid (PA) and other saturated fatty acids (SFAs) to raise cholesterolaemia has led to discussions on whether PA, which has been positively related to high serum cholesterol levels, could increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. This study aims to review the PA content of meat, dairy products, fish, and other food of animal origin in the human diet and discusses nutritional issues related to the occurrence of this fatty acid (FA) in these foods due to different diet supplementation. Meat and dairy products are considerable dietary sources of SFAs, such as PA. In most industrialized countries, a high meat or dairy intake contributes to a higher than recommended SFA intake. Palmitic and myristic acids are common FAs in meat and dairy products, making up about 30-40% of total FA intake and are the main factors responsible for raising cholesterol levels; indeed, strong evidence indicates that these two SFAs increase serum cholesterol concentrations in humans. Stearic acid is partially converted to oleic acid in vivo and has not been shown to elevate blood cholesterol, while lauric acid is not as potent as PA at raising concentrations of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol in humans. The occurrence of PA in animal origin food is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, such as the composition of the animal's diet, its digestive system and its biosynthetic processes. The FA profile in food of animal origin mainly reflects dietary lipid sources and has the potential to play a valuable role in human nutrition by manipulating the composition of animal fat through diet. In order to explain the variability in FA composition in food of animal origin, this review examines different nutrition trials that have studied the effects of PA supplementation on the lipid profile of animal origin food.