What Is Stearic Acid (18:0) & What Foods Can I Find It In?
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Stearic acid, 18:0, is also known as octadecanoic acid.
It’s a saturated long-chain fatty acid that is obtained from fats and oils.
Stearic acid is essential for us and have shown to be good for our health.
Commercial stearic acid is often a mixture of stearic and palmitic acids.
But natural or purified stearic acid is better from a health perspective.
Table of Contents
Stearic Acid Is Essential
Stearic acid is an essential fatty acid, which means that the body cannot produce it and must get it from the diet.
It is present in the cell membrane of every cell in the body. It is a component of the lipids that exists in the plasma membrane.
Stearic Acid Is A Useful Common Fatty Acid
Stearic acid is a saturated long-chain fatty acid. It’s one of the most common fatty acids.
Stearic acid is found in vegetable fats such as coconut oil, palm oil, and safflower oil. It is also found abundantly in animal fats such as beef, pork, and milk. (source ◳)
Stearic Acid Is Abundant In Animal Fat
Stearic acid is more abundant in animal fat, up to 30%. Compared to vegetable fat that typically contains 5% or less.
While cocoa butter and shea butter is the stearic acid content is about 28–45%. (source ◳)
A Recommendation About Stearic Acid
There is a recommendation from researchers that the food industry should consider enriching foods with stearic acid instead of palmitic acid and trans fatty acid.
Because stearic acids are nontoxic and biocompatible with the human body. (source ◳)
Foods You Can Find Stearic Acid (18:0) In
You find Stearic Acid (18:0) mostly in fats and oils, beef, sweets, lamb, veal, and game products.
Examples of food sources include
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