Hydrogenated Fats in the Diet and Lipids in the Serum of Man

Abstract

Selectively hydrogenated oils were exchanged for the corresponding natural oils in the diet of physically healthy men in a mental hospital. In 27 men a mean rise of 10 mg of cholesterol per 100 ml of serum resulted from the exchange of hydrogenated for natural safflower oil fed at the level of 30 gm in the daily diet. In 12 men similar exchange of those oils at the level of 100 gm daily produced a mean rise of 25 mg of cholesterol per 100 ml. In 13 men substitution of hydrogenated for natural corn oil fed at the level of 100 gm daily produced a mean rise in cholesterol of 21 mg per 100 ml. In another experiment on 23 men the variable in the daily diet was 95 gm of fat, comparison being made between a mixture of natural vegetable oils and a hydrogenated product with the same proportions of saturated, monoene and diene fatty acids but containing 36% of trans monoene and 12% of trans or conjugated diene. The hydrogenated fat produced mean rises, per 100 ml of serum, of 21, 18, and 61 mg of cholesterol, phospholipids, and triglycerides, respectively.