Conjugated linoleic acid in bovine milk fat: a food-based approach to cancer chemoprevention

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a naturally occurring fatty acid found in animal and dairy fats that exhibits a number of health benefits. An explosion of research has demonstrated the importance of CLA in health-promotion, e.g. as a dietary chemopreventive agent in addition to exhibiting anticatabolic and antiatherosclerotic properties. This has led to efforts to manipulate naturally the CLA content of milk and animal tissue by dietary intervention. Such research may lead to the development of new high CLA-containing ‘functional foods’ designed for cancer chemoprevention.