Saturated or Monounsaturated Fatty Acids Have Different Effect on Body Weight and Feed Intake

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONVarious epidemiologic studies showed that high intake fat, with a rapid and extensive growth of the processed food industry in the last three decades, is considered to be the major risk factors for weight control and obesity. Currently, not only consumption of high quantities of fat but also type of fatty acids is recognized as a vital factor in the development of obesity. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the variations in body weight and food intake of male C57Bl/6 mice after high fat diet either with different fatty acid contents.METHODSMale C57Bl/6 mice (8 weeks of age) were individually housed and fed ad libitum with a control chow diet (CD, 3.5 kcal/g diet, 10% calories from fat), high monounsaturated fatty acid consisting diet (MUFA, 5 kcal/g diet, 40% calories from fat), or high saturated fatty acid consisting diet (SFA, 5 kcal/g diet, 40% calories from fat) for 15 weeks after a two‐weeks of wash out period. Food intake was measured daily and body weight were measured at least two times in a week. Body weight change was calculated from the terminal and initial body weights. Analysis were carried out by Kruskal‐Wallis test using SPSS software version 23.RESULTSThe mean feed intake was highest in MUFA diet group (4.2±0.21g) significantly compared to the control CD (3.9±0.14g) and SFA (3.6±0.13g) groups (p<0.05). Despite the food intake, the mean body weight change was different between dietary groups (CD: 5.5±0.49g; SFA: 9.5±0.66g; MUFA: 8.4±0.62g) (p<0.05) after 15 weeks with the highest change in high saturated fat diet (p<0.05).CONCLUSIONIn conclusion, a high monounsaturated fatty acid diet might stimulate the food intake but high saturated fatty acid diet adversely affected the body weight. Although feed consumption was higher in MUFA intake compared to the SFA intake, the body weight change was higher with SFA intake revealing a lipogenic potential of the saturated fatty acids.