To study the effect of long-term feeding of a diet high in unsaturated fat, low in saturated fat, low in cholesterol, and high in plant sterol on cholelithiasis in man, we reviewed autopsy records from the Los Angeles Veterans Administration controlled clinical trial of dietary prevention of complications of atherosclerosis. Autopsied men who ate more than 33 per cent of the experimental meals served from entry into the trial to death were more likely to have gallstones (34 per cent) than control subjects (14 per cent) (p less than 0.01). The proportion of men in the experimental diet group with gallstones at autopsy was directly correlated with number of trial meals eaten (p less than 0.05). Gallstones were more common (p less than 0.01 ) at autopsy in men 9.1 kg or more overweight (43 per cent) than in the remaining men (16 per cent) in both diet groups. The data suggest that some property of the experimental diet (high ratio of polyunsaturated fat to saturated fat or high ratio of plant sterol to cholesterol or both) promoted gallstone formation.
Sturdevant et al. (Thu,) studied this question.