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Video / Sharecare Experts / Eva M. Selhub, MD / What Should I Know Before Using Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA)?

What Should I Know Before Using Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA)?

What Should I Know Before Using Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA)? (0:48)

The best way to get conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is from beef, dairy or a supplement; there are warnings for diabetes patients and also some gastrointestinal side effects. Watch Eva Selhub, MD, explain what you should know before using taking CLA.

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Well, you can get CLA from different area, and especially the graspit, because graspit has high amount of CLA. It's very difficult to get a lot of that into your diet though for the weight loss or fat loss processes of CLA. So you can take it as a supplement, the recommendations are about three grams a day, three divided doses with your meals.

Now the caveat to that is one, if you have diabetes, we don't know how it affects [xx] sensitivity and resistance. You want to make sure that you talk to your doctor, and at least make sure that you're monitoring you sugars. And the other thing that we'd seen though minor can be some gastric intestinal side effects.

So just be wary of and if you start having some gastrointestinal side effects, you just stop taking it and it's pretty safe though to take even up to a year.