Soft" fats were found to depress significantly serum cholesterol levels in diets of high energy to protein (E/P) ratio but not in diets of low energy to protein ratios. A low (E/P) ratio depressed serum cholesterol values, regardless of the type of fat in the diet. The E/P ratio may represent the unknown factor in the equations of workers who have tried to relate the effect of dietary fats to serum cholesterol levels.T HE effect of the energy to protein (E/P) ratio on the serum and carcass cholesterol level lias not been investigated to date. A protein deficient in methionine 1 or carbohydrate 2 and fat 8 "* 1 variations can also affect serum cholesterol levels, but whether the energy value of a diet as calculated from the total caloric intake of carbohydrate, fat and protein may have a relationship to cholesterol levels has not been shown. In the present study the effect of the total metabolizable energy to protein ratio has been correlated with changes in total carcass fat and with changes in carcass and serum cholesterol levels. The E / P ratio of a food item or diet can be calculated by dividing the total available calories in 100 Gm. of the food item or diet by its protein content. For example, a white bread which contains 275 calories in 100 Gm. and 8.5 per cent protein has an E / P ratio of 32.
METHODSTwenty-four groups of chicks (New Hampshire, Columbian Cross) were kept in 3 replicates of 10 birds each on 2 nutritionally complete basal From the
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