AJCN EB Program 2010 Early Registration
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Purchase Article
Right arrow View Shopping Cart
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Grant, W. B
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Grant, W. B
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Grant, W. B
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 70, No. 6, 1111-1112, December 1999
© 1999 American Society for Clinical Nutrition

Letters to the Editor

Low-fat, high-sugar diet and lipoprotein profiles

William B Grant

12 Sir Francis Wyatt Place Newport News, VA 23606-3660 E-mail: Wbgrant{at}norfolk.infi.net

Dear Sir:

The recent paper by Dreon et al (1) reported that a very-low-fat diet is not associated with improved lipoprotein profiles in men. The dietary nutrient data presented in their Table 1Go show that at the same time that the percentage of energy from fat decreased from 31.8% to 10.4%, that from carbohydrates increased from 52.1% to 75.7%, with half of the carbohydrate energy derived from simple sugars. Only near the end of the paper did Dreon et al mention that potential differences in metabolic effects of complex compared with simple sugars need to be considered.


View this table:
[in this window]
[in a new window]
  		Table 1 Dietary components of national diets for 1983 and ischemic heart disease (IHD) mortality rates for 19861
 
It has long been known that simple sugars generate much more triacylglycerol than do complex carbohydrates (2), as well as less HDL cholesterol (3–5). More recently, it has been recognized that triacylglycerols are a risk factor for ischemic heart disease (IHD; 6).

Another way of assessing the effect of fat and carbohydrates on IHD is to consider the dietary profiles of several countries along with their IHD mortality rates. Presented in Table 1Go are consumer food supply data that were obtained from the Food and Agriculture Organization (7) and 1986 IHD mortality rates that were obtained from the World Health Organization (8). The simple sugars category is approximated by sweeteners, lactose, and 50% of the fruit energy.

What is readily apparent from Table 1Go is that there is no relation between the fraction of the diet derived from total carbohydrates and IHD mortality rates, and little relation between grams of fat and IHD mortality rates. However, there is a hint that there is a relation between the fraction of the diet derived from simple carbohydrates and IHD mortality rates. In the data presented in Table 1Go, lactose has the highest correlation with IHD mortality. The linear regression results for lactose are r = 0.97 (P = 0.006) for males and r = 0.95 (P = 0.014) for females. Lactose has long been associated with IHD mortality rates for men and older women according to the ecologic approach (9, 10), although no case-control or cohort studies have been conducted to confirm this finding. In addition, sweeteners have recently been associated with IHD mortality for women between the ages of 35 and 64 y (10).

REFERENCES

  1. Dreon DM, Fernstrom HA, Williams PT, Krauss RM. A very-low-fat diet is not associated with improved lipoprotein profiles in men with a predominance of large, low-density lipoproteins. Am J Clin Nutr 1999;69:411–8.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  2. Reiser S. Health implications of food carbohydrates: heart disease and diabetes. In: Lineback DR, Inglett GE, eds. Food carbohydrates. Westport, CT: AVI Publishing Co, Inc, 1982;11:170–205.
  3. Albrink MJ, Ullrich MD. Interaction of dietary sucrose and fiber on serum lipids in healthy young men fed high carbohydrate diets. Am J Clin Nutr 1986;43:419–28.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  4. Yudkin J, Eisa O, Kang SS, Meraji S, Bruckdorfer KR. Dietary sucrose affects plasma high density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration in young men. Ann Nutr Metab 1986;30:261–6.[Medline]
  5. Archer SL, Liu K, Dyer AR, et al. Relationship between changes in dietary sucrose and high density lipoprotein cholesterol: The CARDIA Study. Ann Epidemiol 1998;8:433–8.[Medline]
  6. Jeppesen J, Hein HO, Suadicani P, Gyntelberg F. Triglyceride concentration and ischemic heart disease. Circulation 1998;97:1029–36.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  7. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Food balance sheets. Rome: FAO, 1996.
  8. World Health Organization. World health statistics annual. Geneva: WHO, 1992.
  9. Segall JJ. Epidemiological evidence for the link between dietary lactose and atherosclerosis. In: Colaco CA, ed. The glycation hypothesis of atherosclerosis. Austin, TX: Landes Bioscience, 1997:185–209.
  10. Grant WB. Milk and other dietary influences on coronary heart disease. Altern Med Rev 1998;3:281–94.[Medline]




This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Purchase Article
Right arrow View Shopping Cart
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Grant, W. B
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Grant, W. B
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Grant, W. B

HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS