Dietary Fiber and Lipoproteins

Abstract

Early investigations into the mechanism by which some sources of dietary fiber exert their hypocholestermic effects centered on changes in steroid excretion brought about by adsorption of bile salts and bile acids by some component(s) of dietary fiber (Story and Kritchevsky, 1976; Story, 1980). Subsequent examination of the relationship between the magnitude of change in steroid excretion and in serum cholesterol indicated that this single phenomenon could not explain the range of effects observed with various dietary fiber-related materials (Kay and Truswell, 1980; Story, 1980). Change in lipoprotein metabolism has emerged as an additional explanation for the involvement of dietary fiber in regulation of lipid metabolism. The association of the levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) with increased risk of atherosclerotic heart disease and high-density lipoproteins (HDL) with reduced risk, and the importance of these lipoproteins in regulation of all phases of lipid metabolism, have made examination of the effects of dietary fiber on these variables especially interesting.