Effects of butter oil blends with increased concentrations of stearic, oleic and linolenic acid on blood lipids in young adults

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this present project was to evaluate a more satisfactory effect on plasma lipoprotein profile ofspreads based on dairy fat. DESIGN: This study was designed as a randomised cross-over experiment with athree-week treatment separated by a three-week wash-out period. Sixty five grams of the fat content of the habitualdiets was replaced by either butter/grapeseed oil (90:10) (BG); butter oil and low erucic rapeseed oil (65:35) (BR) orbutter blended in a 1:1 ratio with a interesterified mixture of rapeseed oil and fully hydrogenated rapeseed oil (70: 30)(BS). SUBJECTS: Thirteen healthy free-living young men (age 21-26 y) fulfilled the study. INTERVENTIONS: At thebeginning and end of each diet period two venous blood samples were collected. Triacylglycerol and cholesterolconcentrations in total plasma and VLDL, LDL, IDL and HDL fractions were measured, as were apo A-1 and apo Bconcentrations. Fatty acid composition of plasma phospholipids, plasma cholesterol ester and platelets was alsodetermined. RESULTS: Significantly (P <0.05) lower total and LDL-cholesterol concentrations were observed after theBR and BS period, compared to BG. The effect of BR and BS did not differ. BG and BR resulted in equalconcentrations of HDL-C, but significantly higher than BS. Consequently, a significantly lower LDL-C/HDL-C ratio wasseen after the BR treatment compared to BG and BS. Apo A-1 concentrations were not significantly different, but ApoB was significantly increased after BG. CONCLUSIONS: Partially replacing milk fat with rapeseed oil seems to yield amore healthy spread. Stearic acid had a HDL-C lowering effect compared to milk fat, but did not affect LDL-Csignificantly. The addition of stearic acid did not improve the plasma lipoprotein profile for young men with lowcholesterol levels.