The Truth About Palmitic Acid

By Seabuck Staff , published Nov 2, 2015

What is it?

Palmitic acid is the most common fatty acid found in plants and animals. It already exists naturally in our bodies. Our bodies can create palmitic acid with excess carbohydrates and our bodies use these fat cells to store energy.

Why do I keep hearing that it’s bad for me?

There have been clinical studies that show that isolated palmitic acid in high amounts can be harmful. Under the circumstances of a lab setting, palmitic acid can do some damage but those circumstances are completely different than when you eat palmitic acid in a natural way (not isolated or in high amounts).

That’s because when palmitic acid is in its natural state (alongside other nutrients and vitamins) it is not harmful in the least. Not to mention that the chances of you ever getting isolated palmitic acid in your body is slim to none; unless of course you are a lab rat. Unfortunately, there are some companies who have chosen to misrepresent this information in order to sell products. They say that Omega-7 that is not purified won’t give you the same benefits.

If lab tests show that isolated palmitic acid is bad for me, shouldn’t I avoid it at all costs?

As we mentioned, palmitic acid is not harmful when it comes naturally in food or in our sea buckthorn oil products. Our bodies know what to do with palmitic acid when it comes along with other vitamins and nutrients in food or whole food supplements like sea buckthorn. In the extremely unlikely scenario of too much palmitic acid in your body, your liver would even be able to change it to oleic acid (omega-9).

Sea buckthorn is the best source of Omega-7

We don’t need to “purify” our oil products which is a benefit. Sea buckthorn is rich with many different omegas and nutrients, so it’s best to have the whole oil! Not only does your body process it better than isolated oil, its more stable (doesn’t go rancid easily) and again, is much more nutritionally dense than isolated oil which means more benefits for you.

References:

Annu Rev Nutr. 2004;24:345-76.Structure, function, and dietary regulation of delta6, delta5, and delta9 desaturases. Nakamura MT1, Nara Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2005 Oct 14;336(1):309-15. Oleate prevents palmitate-induced cytotoxic stress in cardiac myocytes. Miller TA1, LeBrasseur NK, Cote GM, Trucillo MP, Pimentel DR, Ido Y, Ruderman NB, Sawyer DB.

Nat Immunol. 2011 May;12(5):408-15. doi: 10.1038/ni.2022. Epub 2011 Apr 10.Fatty acid-induced NLRP3-ASC inflammasome activation interferes with insulin signaling.Wen H1, Gris D, Lei Y, Jha S, Zhang L, Huang MT, Brickey WJ, Ting JP.

J Biomed Sci. 2014 Feb 12;21:13. doi: 10.1186/1423-0127-21-13. Protection of palmitic acid-mediated lipotoxicity by arachidonic acid via channeling of palmitic acid into triglycerides in C2C12. Cheon HG, Cho YS1.

Oleate and other long chain fatty acids stimulate low density lipoprotein receptor activity by enhancing acyl coenzyme A: cholesterol acyltransferase activity and altering intracellular regulatory cholesterol pools in cultured cells. Rumsey SC1, Galeano NF, Lipschitz B, Deckelbaum RJ.

J Lipid Res. 1996 Nov;37(11):2310-23. Dietary linoleic acid increases and palmitic acid decreases hepatic LDL receptor protein and mRNA abundance in young pigs. Mustad VA1, Ellsworth JL, Cooper AD, Kris-Etherton PM, Etherton TD.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8978483