Monounsaturated fatty acid (avocado) rich diet for mild hypercholesterolemia

ABSTRACT

To assess the effect of a high monoinsaturated fatty acids (MFA) diet on serum lipids, 30 healthy adultt normolipidemic volunteers and 37 adult patients with mild hypercholesterolemia (5.4 - 9.3 mmol/l), 15 of them also with hypertriglyceridemia (2.3 - 4.8 mmol/l), were studied. Fifteen healthy and 30 hypercholesterolemic subjects (15 of them with associated type 2 diabetes mellitus) received an avocado enriched diet (2000 Kcal, lipids 53 percent MFA 49 g saturated/unsaturated ratio 0.54), and seven non-diabetic hypercholesterolemic individuals received an isocaloric control diet (MFA 34 g, saturated/unsaturated ratio 0.7). Serum total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations were measured before and after a 7-day diet period. In healthy individuals a 16 percent decrease of serum total cholesterol level followed the high MFA diet, while it rose after the control diet (p<0.001 between diets). In hypercholesterolemic subjects a significant (p<0.01) decrease of serum total cholesterol (17 percent), LDL-cholesterol (22 percent) and triglycerides (22 percent), and increase of HDL-cholesterol (11 percent) levels occurred with the avocado diet, while no significant changes were noticed with the control diet. High lipid, high MFA-avocado enriched diet can improve lipid profile in healty and especially in mild hypercholesterolemic patients, even if hypertriglyceridemia (combined hyperlipidemia) is present