The healthy Nordic diet has been previously shown to have health beneficial effects among subjects at risk of CVD. However, the extent of food changes needed to achieve these effects is less explored. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of exchanging a few commercially available, regularly consumed key food items (e.g. spread on bread, fat for cooking, cheese, bread and cereals) with improved fat quality on total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and inflammatory markers in a double-blind randomised, controlled trial. In total, 115 moderately hypercholesterolaemic, non-statin-treated adults (25-70 years) were randomly assigned to an experimental diet group (Ex-diet group) or control diet group (C-diet group) for 8 weeks with commercially available food items with different fatty acid composition (replacing SFA with mostly n-6 PUFA). In the Ex-diet group, serum total cholesterol (P < 0·001) and LDL-cholesterol (P < 0·001) were reduced after 8 weeks, compared with the C-diet group. The difference in change between the two groups at the end of the study was −9 and −11 % in total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol, respectively. No difference in change in plasma levels of inflammatory markers (high-sensitive C-reactive protein, IL-6, soluble TNF receptor 1 and interferon-γ) was observed between the groups. In conclusion, exchanging a few regularly consumed food items with improved fat quality reduces total cholesterol, with no negative effect on levels of inflammatory markers. This shows that an exchange of a few commercially available food items was easy and manageable and led to clinically relevant cholesterol reduction, potentially affecting future CVD risk.
The effects of dietary manipulation, including vegetarian, Mediterranean, elemental and elimination diets, on rheumatoid arthritis are still uncertain due to the included studies being small, single trials with moderate to high risk of bias. Higher drop-out rates and weight loss in the groups with dietary manipulation indicate that potential adverse effects should not be ignored.
Replacing intake of saturated fatty acids (SFA) with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) reduces serum cholesterol levels and cardiovascular disease risk. The effect on glycaemic regulation is however, less clear. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the short-term effect of replacing dietary SFA with PUFA on glycaemic regulation.
Seventeen healthy, normal-weight participants completed a 25-day double blind, randomised, and controlled, two-period crossover study. Participants were allocated to either interventions with PUFA products or SFA products (control) in a random order for three consecutive days, separated by a 1.5-week washout period between the intervention periods. Glucose, insulin and triglycerides were measured before and after an oral glucose tolerance test. In addition, fasting total cholesterol, non-esterified fatty acids and plasma total fatty acid profile were measured before and after the three-day interventions. Fasting and postprandial glucose, insulin, and triglyceride levels and fasting levels of non-esterified fatty acids and plasma fatty acids profile did not differ between the groups. However, replacing dietary SFA with PUFA significantly reduced total cholesterol levels with 8 % after three days (P = 0.002). Replacing dietary SFA with PUFA for only three days have beneficial cardio-metabolic effects by reducing cholesterol levels in healthy individuals.
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