Food & Nutrition

Arab Journal of Food & Nutrition
76. Effect of Fat-Free Cocoa Powder on Blood Lipid Levels in Rate Fed
Cholesterol-Supplemented Diets (2005)
Amira Mohammad Amr\ University of Jordan
Supervisor: Dr. Mousa Numan Ahmad
This study was carried out to investigate the long-term effect of feeding different
levels of a dietary preparation of fat-free cocoa powder with or without cholesterol on
serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations in rats. Forty-eight adult male Sprague-
Dawley rats (239.6±1.7g) were divided into eight groups. Each group was fed a diet
containing either 0, 1, 2 or 3g fat-free cocoa powder with 0 or 1g cholesterol per 100g
diet mixture for ten weeks. Fasting serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), high density
lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and
triglycerides (TG) were determined by enzymatic-colorimetric method using standard
kit procedure. Body weights, liver weights and food intakes were also recorded.
Feeding different levels of fat-free cocoa to various cholesterol-free and
cholesterolsupplemented rat groups resulted in insignificant (P>0.05) changes in
weight gain, liver weight, accumulative food intake and food efficiency ratio.
Irrespective of cholesterol, similar results were obtained. Rats fed cocoa diets with
cholesterol showed a significant (P0.05) serum levels of TC, HDL-C and VLDL-C, and ratios of HDL-C/ LDL-C and
TC/ TG, as well as atherogenic index. Rats fed 3% cocoa diet without cholesterol
exhibited significant (P