Metabolic health
Myristic acid (C14:0)
Tetradecanoic acid
Included in Complete.
Compare membershipsWhat a minor saturated fat says about diet and metabolism.
Myristic acid is a saturated fat, the kind that's firm at room temperature in butter and coconut oil. Your result shows its share of all the fatty acids (the building blocks of fat) measured in your blood.
Food is only part of the picture.
Myristic acid is found mainly in dairy fat and in coconut and palm kernel oils. Your liver can also make saturated fats from extra carbohydrates and alcohol, a process called de novo lipogenesis, so blood levels don't simply mirror how much saturated fat you eat.
In a large European study, people with higher blood levels of myristic, palmitic, and stearic acids were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Studies like this describe patterns in groups and can't predict what will happen to one person.
Questions
What can raise myristic acid?
A diet rich in dairy fat or coconut and palm kernel oils can raise it, and so can more fat-making by the liver. It's best read alongside your other saturated fats, your triglycerides, and your blood sugar markers.
Is there a target level for myristic acid?
No. There's no established target, and research on myristic acid as a stand-alone marker is limited. It's mostly used in research and nutrition assessment as part of the wider fatty acid pattern.
Sources and references
- Forouhi et al., Individual plasma phospholipid saturated fatty acids and incident type 2 diabetes, EPIC-InterAct (Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol, 2014)
- Hodson, Skeaff, and Fielding, Fatty acid composition of adipose tissue and blood in humans and its use as a biomarker of dietary intake (Prog Lipid Res, 2008)