Dietary Fat and Protein and Serum Cholesterol

Abstract

Four groups of weanling pigs were fed either high- or low-protein and either high- or low-fat diets for 36 weeks. Evidence of protein malnutrition was most marked in the low-protein, high-fat group. These animals exhibited signs that have been interpreted as resembling the human infant disease, kwashiorkor. Fat in the form of beef tallow in the diet caused a rapid rise in serum cholesterol. Low-protein intakes also resulted in increase in serum cholesterol. The cholesterol values reached a peak between the 4th and 8th week and then declined slowly toward the levels found in adult swine. The low-protein, high-fat group did not return toward the minimal level as rapidly as the other groups, and this has been related to the greater severity of protein malnutrition that they exhibited.