Dietary Control of Serum Cholesterol Levels in Rats Fed High-Fat, Cholate-Containing Diets

In a series of experiments, rats were fed semisynthetic atherogenic diets containing variable amounts of cholesterol (from 0 to 5%) with 40% of either cocoa butter, dairy butter, corn oil, or linseed oil as the source of fat, and 2% sodium cholate. It was found that serum cholesterol levels increased as the amount of dietary cholesterol increased to the 1% level, but raising the dietary cholesterol above this level did not provoke a proportional change in serum cholesterol during the first 3 months of the experiment.