American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 26, 798-802, Copyright © 1973 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Intensification of hypertriglyceridemia by either alcohol or carbohydrate

¹ From the Clinical Research Center and the Departments of Internal Medicine and Biochemistry, College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242

The serum lipid responses to the feeding of large quantities of either alcohol or carbohydrate were compared in a patient with endogenous hypertriglyceridemia. Eucaloric formula diets that contained different amounts of fat and carbohydrate were fed during 60 days of hospitalization in a metabolic unit. In one dietary period, alcohol was given in an amount equal to 25% of the total calories. The serum cholesterol concentrations remained constant throughout the study. However, the serum triglyceride concentrations were greatly increased over base-line values (200% increase) during those dietary periods containing either 65% of the calories as carbohydrate or 40% of the calories as carbohydrate and 25% as alcohol. The rises in serum triglyceride level were associated with accentuations of the very low density (pre-beta) lipoprotein band on electrophoresis. Therefore, in this patient, a similar hypertriglyceridemic response was produced by feeding formula diets containing a high percentage of either alcohol or carbohydrate.