ABSTRACT
Current understanding of the pathophysiology of the atherothrombotic process underlies that cardiovascular disease (CVD) implies a central role for cholesterol metabolism. Even not the only, but strongly discussed risk factor for CVD by influencing the body´s cholesterol ratio is the quality of fats in the diet. The consumption of diets rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) has been associated with lower plasma concentrations of LDL-cholesterol, however, different in efficiency. Moreover a different impact on HDL-cholesterol has been discussed. This paper summarizes the outcome of paper which have been published on this topic the recent years and focus on an internal study which was conducted to evaluate the effects of a plant oil mixture of olive/sunflower oil (saturated/monounsaturated/ polyunsaturated (S/M/P) = 14:69:17) high in oleic acid but also showing a moderate content of polyunsaturated fatty acids in comparison with a single, PUFA rich corn oil (S/M/P = 13:33:54) used in a normal, balanced diet on human plasma and lipoprotein metabolism.