Plasma lipid and lipoprotein responses to dietary fat and cholesterol: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Quantitative relations between dietary fat and cholesterol and plasma lipid concentrations have been the subject of much study and some controversy during the past 40 y. Previous meta-analyses have focused on the most tightly controlled, highest-quality experiments. To test whether the findings of these investigations are generalizable to broader experimental settings and to the design of practical dietary education interventions, data from 224 published studies on 8143 subjects in 366 independent groups including 878 diet-blood lipid comparisons were subjected to weighted multiple-regression analysis. Inclusion criteria specified intervention studies published in English between 1966 and 1994 reporting quantitative data on changes in dietary cholesterol and fat and corresponding changes in serum cholesterol, triacylglycerol, and lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations. Regression models are reported for serum total cholesterol, triacylglycerol, and low-density-high-density-, and very-low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, with multiple correlations of 0.74, 0.65, 0.41, 0.14, and 0.34, respectively. Interactions of dietary factors, initial dietary intakes and serum concentrations, and study and subject characteristics had little effect on these models. Predictions indicated that compliance with current dietary recommendations (30% of energy from fat, < 10% from saturated fat, and < 300 mg cholesterol/d) will reduce plasma total and low-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol concentrations by approximately 5% compared with amounts associated with the average American diet.

Fatty acid analysis of wild ruminant tissues: evolutionary implications for reducing diet-related chronic disease

“…Table 7 shows that the absolute saturated fat content of grain-fed beef (1909 mg=100 g sample) is 2 -3 times greater than that of game meat. Increases in dietary levels of saturated fat, particularly 12:0, 14:0 and 16:0 have been identified as the major dietary factor responsible for raising total and LDL serum cholesterol concentrations (Hegsted et al, 1965;Howell et al, 1997). Elevations in total and LDL cholesterol are major risk factors for CHD (National Cholesterol Education Program, 1991).…”

Dietary patterns in six European populations: results from EURALIM, a collaborative European data harmonization and information campaign

“…The relation of total fat intake and fatty acid patterns to cardiovascular disease development has been extensively studied (Truswell & Choudhury, 1998;Hegsted & Kritchevsky, 1997;Howell et al, 1997;Hegsted et al, 1993). Current guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular disease focus speci®cally on saturated fat.…”

Two Major Loci Control Variation in β-Lipoprotein Cholesterol and Response to Dietary Fat and Cholesterol in Baboons

“…Dietary cholesterol has dominated most animal model studies of diet-induced hyperlipidemia, whereas its role in human hyperlipidemia is considered small relative to that of saturated fatty acids. 44 A possible explanation for the differences in responsiveness to dietary cholesterol among animal species (including humans) is greater interspecies variation in the frequencies of alleles for genes affecting cholesterol response compared with those affecting fat response. That is, animals of all species show a …”