N. Rakicioglu et al., THE EFFECT OF COFFEE AND CAFFEINE CONSUMPTION ON SERUM-LIPIDS IN RATS, International journal of food sciences and nutrition, 49(6), 1998, pp. 441-446
This study was carried out on the male adult Wistar-Albino rats in ord
er to investigate the effects of coffee and caffeine consumption on se
rum lipids in atherogenic and normal diets. Fifty rats were divided in
to five groups and each group was fed with the following diets: first
group was a control group and fed with the standard chow diet, coffee,
caffeine, cholesterol and cholesterol plus coffee were added to secon
d, third, fourth, and fifth groups, respectively. The results indicate
d that the consumption of coffee alone had no effect on serum lipids.
However the addition of coffee to a hypercholesterolemic diet signific
antly increased the effect on serum total cholesterol (P < 0.01), trig
lycerides (P < 0.05), VLDL-cholesterol (P < 0.05), LDL-cholesterol (P
< 0.01), and HDL-cholesterol (P < 0.01) levels. Adding caffeine to nor
mal diet resulted in an increase in serum total cholesterol (P < 0.01)
. Despite these increases, the ratio of HDL-cholesterol to total chole
sterol and LDL-cholesterol remained unchanged. The results indicated t
hat coffee could not be considered alone as a risk factor for coronary
heart disease.