One potential advantage for the food industry, Shanklin says, is that these arcane creations may evade recognition by key elements of the digestive tract. In the body, fats tend to get packaged in threes onto a glycerol backbone. But to absorb these fats, Shanklin notes, they must be cut apart from the glycerol. Redesign of soluble fatty acid desaturases from plants for altered substrate specificity and double-bond position. Raloff, J. 1996.
Unusual fats lose heart-friendly image.
New trans fat studies muddy the waters. Margarine is anything but a marginal fat. Yuan, L., T.A. Voelker, and D.J. Hawkins. Modification of the substrate specificity of an acyl-acyl carrier protein thioesterase by protein engineering. This week's Food for Thought is prepared by Janet Raloff, senior editor of Science News .