Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA)

CLA is a textbook case of a supplement whose marketing got far ahead of its evidence — and then the evidence turned out to point the wrong way. It's a 'conjugated' form of an omega-6 fatty acid, sold in softgels as a stimulant-free fat-burner and body-recomposition aid, usually made from safflower or sunflower oil. The catch is two-fold. First, it largely doesn't work: when researchers pool the human trials, CLA produces little to no change in body weight, and a meta-analysis combining it with exercise found no benefit for weight, blood lipids or athletic performance — at best a small dent in body fat. Second, and more important, commercial CLA is a roughly equal blend of two isomers, and one of them — t10,c12 — has been repeatedly linked in human and animal studies to worsening insulin resistance, raised proinsulin, and fat building up in the liver, along with a drop in protective HDL cholesterol. That's a genuinely awkward profile for a product marketed specifically to overweight people, who are the most likely to already be drifting toward insulin resistance and fatty liver. Being plant-derived (and so halal by source) does not make that clinical concern go away. ORIA's verdict: this is one to skip — minimal upside, a real metabolic downside, and your money is better spent on food.