FASTING DURING RAMADAN INDUCES A MARKED INCREASE IN HIGH-DENSITY-LIPOPROTEIN CHOLESTEROL AND DECREASE IN LOW-DENSITY-LIPOPROTEIN CHOLESTEROL

We demonstrated for the first time in a Moroccan population that fasti ng during Ramadan, the ninth lunar month of the Muslims' year, affecte d lipid and lipoprotein metabolism in a group of 32 healthy adult male volunteers. This investigation was conducted to study the changes in serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, cholesterol in high-density li poprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), glucose, and body w eight during Ramadan. The results showed a significant decrease (7.9%, p < 0.001) in serum total cholesterol concentration during Ramadan as compared with the prefasting period. Also, we obtained a significant decrease of serum triglyceride concentration (30%, p < 0.001) during R amadan fasting as compared to the period before Ramadan. The reduction of both serum triglycerides and total cholesterol was maintained 1 mo nth after Ramadan. By the end of Ramadan, serum HDL cholesterol had ma rkedly increased (14.3%, p < 0.001) and remained elevated 1 month afte r Ramadan in contrast to LDL cholesterol which showed a significant de crease (11.7%, p < 0.001) also maintained 1 month after Ramadan. Mean body weight declined by 2.6% (p < 0.01) on day 29 of Ramadan, whereas during Ramadan, the diet pattern used by our subjects showed an increa se of total energy intake due to carbohydrates (+1.4% of total energy) , proteins (+0.4% of total energy) but not fat (-0.7% of total energy) compared to a usual diet used throughout the rest of the year. Moreov er, the fat diet is high in monounsaturated (p < 0.05) and polyunsatur ated fatty acid in contrast to saturated fatty acid which significantl y (p < 0.05) decreased during Ramadan. These findings suggest that fee ding behavior that occurs during Ramadan beneficially affects plasma l ipids and lipoproteins.