#514: Plant-derived Fatty Acids – Ella Baker, PhD
Sigma Nutrition Radio
Danny Lennon
4.8 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2024
⏱️ 33 minutes
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Summary
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About This Episode:
There is a lot of interesting research going on related to plant-derived fatty acids, owing to their potential to help improve health and provide sustainable alternatives to other sources of healthy-promoting fatty acids.
In addition to work looking at the long-investigated alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), some research is now starting to look at more novel fatty acids like stearidonic acid (SDA), and pinolenic acid (PLA), each presenting unique structures and potential benefits within various plant sources. One intriguing focal point is Ahiflower oil, a distinctive source that harbors both ALA and SDA.
In this episode, Dr. Ella Baker of the University of Southampton discusses some of the science behind plant-derived fatty acids, offering a deeper understanding of their distinctive qualities, conversion pathways, and the captivating interplay between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
Dr. Baker's research to date focuses on the metabolism, functionality, and underlying mechanisms of action of plant-derived fatty acids. Her interests include novel plant-derived fatty acids and exploring the effects on membrane structure and function.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Sigma Nutrition Radio. This is episode 514 of the podcast. I'm your host, Danny Lennon, and you are very welcome to the show today. |
| 0:24.3 | Today we're going to be talking all about plant-derived fatty acids and the potential for different |
| 0:30.2 | fatty acids that are taken from plant sources to be used as alternatives, at least in some ways, |
| 0:37.0 | to maybe EPA and DHA, which we've |
| 0:40.5 | discussed on the podcast before, to walk through some of this interesting research and to look at some |
| 0:45.4 | of the more novel fatty acids that are being looked at in a research setting. I'm talking |
| 0:49.8 | with Dr. Ella Baker, who is a postdoctoral research fellow within the Faculty of Medicine at the |
| 0:55.8 | University of Southampton. And Dr. Baker's research today has focused on the metabolism, |
| 1:01.8 | functionality, and underlying mechanisms of action of some of these plant-derived fatty acids. |
| 1:08.0 | And in particular, her research interests include these novel plant-derived fatty acids, |
| 1:12.6 | some of which we're going to discuss today, including steerodonic acid, penelenic acid, as well as |
| 1:18.2 | looking at ones that you may have heard of like alpha-lineletic acid, and exploring how those affect |
| 1:24.5 | membrane structure and function, and if there is a place for those as potentially |
| 1:29.6 | alternatives to direct sources of EPA or DHA, or at least in some combination. And this comes from |
| 1:36.5 | a perspective of sustainability, knowing that there couldn't be declines in some of the sources of |
| 1:42.4 | these direct omega-3 fatty acids going into the future. |
| 1:45.7 | So we're going to discuss a whole bunch of stuff related to these specific fatty acids. |
| 1:50.6 | So I think there's lots of interesting questions to explore throughout this conversation. |
| 1:56.0 | Remember, if you are a Sigma Nutrition Premium subscriber, you'll be able to get detailed |
| 2:00.2 | study notes to this |
| 2:01.2 | episode, which includes a breakdown of everything that is discussed, additional diagrams, graphs, |
| 2:06.5 | etc. that will help explain that, as well as a recap of some of the key themes throughout the |
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