Dietary effects of the esters of butyric, caproic, caprylic, capric, lauric, myristic, palmitic, and stearic acids on food intake, weight gain, plasma glucose, and tissue lipid in the male white rat.

Eight saturated fatty acid esters were fed to male white rats for 30 days in a 1/81 fractional factorial experiment in which diets contained 12-38% of their total energy as lipid. Marked increases in food intake, feed efficiency, and weight gain were achieved when lipid provided 36% of diet energy, and when that lipid was more than half caproate, caprate, myristate, and/or stearate. Caproate was the only saturated fatty acid to increase plasma glucose levels. The feeding of stearate or caprylate decreased plasma and liver cholesterol. Caprate increased liver fat. The short-chain fatty acids (butyrate to myristate) increased the concentration of fat in the carcass.