Andreas Mæchel Fritzen

Certain types of fats that exist in milk and coconut- and palm kernel oil have health benefits. These fats – referred to as medium-chain fatty acids – help control blood glucose levels and also increase the feeling of satiety and at the same time enhance the body’s metabolic rate (i.e., burn more calories), which can promote a healthy body weight and lower the risk of developing metabolic diseases. How these effects happen in the body is currently unknown – but important to elucidate. After considering how these medium-chain fatty acids are digested and how and where they are metabolized in the body, I will investigate the new hypothesis that they act on the liver to release special factors that mediate the health benefits in the rest of the body. I want to first identify those factors and then verify that they actually drive these health beneficial effects in the body.