Stearic acid health benefit and safety

Stearic acid is a long-chain saturated fatty acid. Stearic acid is one of the useful types of saturated fatty acids that come from many animal and vegetable fats and oils.  Its name comes from the Greek word stéar which means tallow. The term stearate is applied to the salts and esters of stearic acid. It's very stable in storage and during frying. A relatively large percentage of stearic acid consumed is converted to oleic acid (a monounsaturated fat).

Stearic acid in foods
Stearic acid is used to form margarines, shortenings, spreads, and as a cream base for baked products.

Stearic acid and cholesterol
Even though stearic acid is a saturated fat, studies have suggested that it has little effect on blood cholesterol levels, because such a high proportion is converted to oleic acid.

Stearic acid in chocolate, cocoa, cacao
Stearic acid is sound in some plant foods like cacao, cocoa, chocolate.

Stearic acid and cholesterol
Stearic acid does not seem to raise serum cholesterol concentrations. Stearic acid does not seem to raise low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol relative to oleic acid, which is known to be neutral in its effects on cholesterol concentrations. In contrast, palmitic acid, another long-chain saturated fatty acid, raises cholesterol concentrations. For this reason, fats rich in stearic acid might be used in place of those high in palmitic acid in cholesterol-lowering diets.

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