American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 10, 391-397, Copyright © 1962 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

The Effect of Commercial Margarines on Plasma Cholesterol Levels in Man

¹ From the Departments of Biochemistry and Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario

None of eight margarines substituted equicalorically for 22.5 per cent of calories as carbohydrate in a basal formula diet providing 22.5 per cent of calories as butter fat caused a significant change in plasma cholesterol in an experiment completed by eighty-eight university students. The responses of the groups which consumed the rations containing the margarines did not differ significantly from that of a group given corn oil but were significantly lower than that of a group given butter fat. These margarines were tested also on another group of eighty-two subjects by substituting them equicalorically for 45 per cent of calories as carbohydrate in a basal formula diet essentially free from fat. Only three groups responded with increases in plasma cholesterol in which the P values were less than 0.05. The difference between the mean of the margarine groups was significantly lower than that of a group fed an equicaloric amount of butter (P, < 0.01) and higher than that of a group fed corn oil (P, < 0.05). The slight differences in response amongst the margarines could not be definitely attributed to any specific differences in their composition.