The Lipid Response of Postmenopausal Women to Dietary Carbohydrates

Abstract

Low fat diets containing a relative excess of maize starch or sucrose were given to six postmenopausal women for periods of twenty-five days. The findings were compared with those in men and premenopausal women who had consumed similar diets. With the sucrose diet the glyceride and free sterol fraction of the serum increased in the men and in the postmenopausal women, but decreased in the premenopausal women. The fatty acid pattern of the adipose tissue did not alter in the pre- and postmenopausal groups with either diet, but it did alter in the men with comparable diets, which suggests that male hormones may be responsible for this lability in depot fatty acid composition. The level of free cholesterol in the serum was the main lipid level affected by weight loss in the postmenopausal group maintained on the starch diet; in addition, there was possibly an increase in the glycerides.