Effects of Saturated Fatty Acids from Butter and Cheese on High-density Lipoprotein (HDL)-Mediated Cholesterol Efflux Capacity

OBJECTIVEThe association between dietary saturated fat (SFA) intake and cardiovascular disease risk remains controversial. Emerging data suggest that SFA from different sources may show different association with cardiovascular and cardiometabolic risk. The objective of this study was to examine how SFA from cheese (CHEESE) influences HDL-mediated cholesterol efflux capacity (CEC), a key anti-atherogenic property of HDL, compared with a low fat/high carbohydrate diet (CHO), a diet rich in SFA from butter (BUTTER) and diets either high in monounsaturated (MUFA) or polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). METHODSA total of 46 men and women with abdominal obesity and with relatively low HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) completed this randomized crossover controlled trial consisting of 5 predetermined isoenergetic diets of 4 weeks each (Table 1): 1) CHEESE, 2) BUTTER, 3) MUFA, 4) PUFA, 5) CHO. All foods were provided to participants during each experimental diet. CEC was assessed with radiolabelled J774 macrophages using a...