Does a meal of unsaturated fat compared to saturated fat improve lipemia and conjunctival blood sludging in men with and without coronary-prone behavior patterns?
Substitution of unsaturated fat for saturated fat in a single meal does not appear to benefit postprandial lipemia or conjunctival blood sludging, particularly in coronary-prone men.
Preprandial and postprandial serum lipids after meals of saturated or unsaturated fat were measured in 44 men, and blood sludging in 20 men, half of whom showed a behavior pattern (A) associated with proneness to clinical coronary artery disease. The average plasma cholesterol and both fasting and postprandial triglyceride values were higher (P<0.001) in men showing pattern A, regardless of whether a saturated or unsaturated fat was given. Seven of ten men with pattern A showed severe sludging after a meal of saturated fat, five of these seven also showed sludging after a meal of unsaturated fat. Sludging was virtually absent in the noncoronary-prone group. It was concluded that substitution of an unsaturated fat for a saturated fat carries no benefit under the circumstances tested.
Meyer Friedman (Mon,) studied this question.