Friday October 5

Switching Dietary Fats Lowers Cholesterol: Study

By Melissa Schorr

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A few weeks on a diet swapping saturated fat for either polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats dramatically lowered cholesterol levels in a group of young adults, New Zealand researchers report.

``Young adults are very responsive to dietary-induced changes in plasma cholesterol,'' noted lead author C. Murray Skeaff of the department of human nutrition at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.

The researchers asked a group of 71 adults aged 21 to 40 to spend two-and-a-half weeks on a diet including saturated fats and then two-and-a-half weeks on a diet containing polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats. The total proportion of dietary calories from fat remained the same, at around one third.

The saturated diets included high amounts of butter and dairy products. Those on monounsaturated fat diets avoided dairy and used products such as olive oil, while those on the polyunsaturated fat diets replaced butter with foods like sunflower oil.

The participants were given recipes and guidebooks with suggestions on how to adjust their diet accordingly. Each participant completed a 3-day diet record. All had their blood cholesterol measured at the beginning and end of each dieting period.

Skeaff and colleagues report their findings in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Compared to cholesterol levels while on the saturated fat diet, those on the polyunsaturated fat diets were able to reduce their blood cholesterol levels by 19%, while those on the monounsaturated fat diet reduced their blood cholesterol levels by 12%, the report indicates.

Overall, the dieters reduced the amount of saturated fat consumed daily by 28 or 29 grams when on the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat diets, respectively, a reduction of around 9% of energy derived from fat, the researchers note.

SOURCE: European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2001;55:908-915.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/200...lesterol_1.html

I wonder what the results would be if they cut out carbs and changed to mono/polyunsturated fats.