The effect of total dietary fat on the blood lipid profile: a review

Fat consumption has increased in Sweden in the 21th century, probably due to the advancement of the diet low car high fat (LCHF). Also, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of premature death in Sweden. Various blood lipids are used to evaluate the cardiovascular disease risk; total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides among others. High levels of total cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides and low levels of HDL are believed to increase the risk. The purpose of this review was to examine the effects of high-fat-diet on blood lipids, cholesterol, LDL, HDL the ratio between LDL/HDL and triglycerides through a systematic review. A supplementary purpose was to analyze the consequences on the cardiovascular health. Articles were systematically searched for and resulted in 23 articles which studied a fat-intake over 50 E%. Eight of these articles were included in the result since the 50 E% fat-intake was followed throughout the study. Four of the eight articles calculated statistical significance between baseline and end values. These studies found a statistical significance reduction in triglycerides and tendencies to a statistical significance increase in HDL after six months on a high fat diet. According to end values, six out of seven studies showed levels of total cholesterol above the risk level for cardiovascular disease and seven out of eight studies resulted in LDL-levels above cardiovascular risk. The articles which reported statistical significance were alike according to time of intervention, mean BMI and fat intake and therefore they should not have affected the results. The results from end values in the eight studies suggest that total cholesterol and LDL increase the cardiovascular risk but HDL, ratio LDL/HDL and triglycerides decrease the cardiovascular risk. The studies who reported statistical significance between baseline and end values did not present any risk for cardiovascular disease after six month on a high fat diet.