1 - Health problems associated with saturated and trans fatty acids intake

Abstract

Saturated fatty acids occur in the diet in different chain lengths, with lauric, myristic, palmitic, and stearic acids as the major ones. Trans fatty acids predominantly occur as monounsaturated fatty acids with the trans double bond at different positions in the carbon chain. Dietary saturated and trans fatty acids have important effects on health. In particular, epidemiological studies and randomized controlled trials on hard clinical end-points indicate that reducing the intake of saturated and trans fatty acids would reduce the risk of Coronary Heart Disease [“CHD”]. The most important metabolic effect by which saturated and trans fatty acids increase CHD risk is through an adverse influence on blood lipid levels. High levels of total blood cholesterol and of cholesterol in Low-Density Lipoproteins [“LDL”] raise the risk for CHD, whereas a high level of cholesterol in High-Density Lipoproteins [“HDL”] lowers it. Dietary saturated fatty acids strongly raise total and LDL cholesterol levels in blood. Trans fatty acids not only raise LDL cholesterol, but also lower HDL cholesterol. Different saturated fatty acids can have different effects on lipoprotein cholesterol levels, but it is unclear if this translates to different effects on CHD risk.