Changing Partially Hydrogenated Fat For Palmitic Acid In The Diet Increases Ldl-Cholesterol And Endogenous Cholesterol Synthesis In Normocholesterolemic Women

The present studies assessed the effect of dietary intake of high versus low palmitic acid and the effect of exchanging palmitic acid for trans fatty acids on plasma lipoprotein cholesterol levels and on rates for endogenous synthesis of cholesterol in normal and hyper-lipidemic subjects. Healthy subjects received each of the diet treatments for 21 days, followed by washout periods of 21 days. On day 20 of each diet treatment, a priming dose of deuterium was consumed and was used to determine incorporation of deuterium into the newly synthesized cholesterol molecule, and fractional synthetic rates were calculated. The high level of 16 : 0 did not significantly affect serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol when diets also contained a high level of 18 : 2n-6. The results indicate that 16 : 0 has no effect on serum lipoprotein profiles in the presence of recommended intakes for 18 : 2n-6. When the diet contained trans fatty acids total and LDL-cholesterol increased and cholesterol synthesis increased with a decrease in HDL-cholesterol.