Polyunsaturated meat and dairy products in fat-modified food patterns for hyperlipidemia

Polyunsaturated meat and dairy products were compared with their saturated counterparts to determine their usefulness in a fat-modified diet for hyperlipidemic persons and their spouses. These polyunsaturated animal products were produced by feeding cattle a supplement of oil droplets coated with denatured protein. As a result, the polyunsaturated fatty acid content was 27 to 28 per cent of the meat fat and butterfat; saturated fatty acids (C12:0 to tc16:0) were 18 to 19 per cent. Of the eleven free-living subjects three were normocholesteremic, three had type IIa hyperlipidemia and five had type VI (IIb). In the fourteen-week study, an adjustment period of three weeks was followed by two consecutive experimental periods of four weeks each, then by a three-week follow-up period. During the adjustment period, participants continued to follow their usual eating patterns. During both experimental periods all followed the same prescribed fat modified food pattern using polyunsaturated margarine and oil. Five participants ate polyunsaturated beef and dairy products during the first experimental period and their saturated counterparts in the second; six participants ate saturated products first, then polyunsaturated. During the follow-up period, all participants selected all their own food. Serum cholesterol levels in five participants who had not previously followed a fat-modified diet were reduced by 18 per cent with polyunsaturated animal products and 11 per cent with saturated products. Serum cholesterol in six participants, previously on a fat-modified diet, was not significantly changed with polyunsaturated products. In ten of eleven participants, serum cholesterol levels were an average of 6 per cent lower with polyunsaturated products than with saturated products. It is concluded that polyunsaturated animal products are suitable for use in fat-modified food patterns for reducing hyperlipidemia, with some restrictions in the amount of polyunsaturated animal fat and with the inclusion of polyunsaturated oil and margarine.