Food Lipids: Chemistry, Nutrition, and Biotechnology

20
Dietary Fats and Coronary
Heart Disease
RONALD P. MENSINK and JOGCHUM PLAT
Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
ELISABETH H. M. TEMME
University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
I. INTRODUCTION
Many factors are associated with increased risk for coronary heart disease (CHD), a
major cause of morbidity and mortality in prosperous Western countries. Some of
these factors, such as increasing age or a family history of premature CHD, are not
amenable to preventive intervention, but other factors are. Three of these preventable
factors—the distribution of plasma cholesterol over the low density and high density
lipoproteins (LDLs and HDLs), the oxidizability of LDLs, and hemostasis—can be
modified by changing the sources and amount of fats and oils in the diet. The purpose
of this chapter is to review some of the most recent and important findings on the
effects of dietary fatty acids on these three risk factors.
II. DIETARY FATS
Although fat and oils are complex mixture of fatty acids, each fat or oil has its
characteristic fatty acid composition. Dairy fat, for example, is relatively rich in fatty
acids with 14 or less carbon atoms, whereas olive oil has a high oleic acid content
(Table 1). Sunflower oil, on the other hand, is rich in linoleic acid, although certain
varieties exist that contain large amounts of oleic acid. In normal, regular diets,
palmitic and stearic acids are the most prevailing saturated fatty acids, while oleic
and linoleic acids are, respectively, the most widespread dietary monounsaturated
Copyright 2002 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.