A stearic acid-rich diet improves thrombogenic and atherogenic risk factorprofiles in healthy males

Objective: To determine whether healthy males who consumed increased amount s of dietary stearic acid compared with increased dietary palmitic acid exh ibited any changes in their platelet aggregability, platelet fatty acid pro files, platelet morphology, or haemostatic factors. Design: A randomized cross-over dietary intervention. Subjects and interven tions: Thirteen free-living healthy males consumed two experimental diets f or 4 weeks with a 7 week washout between the two dietary periods. The diets consisted of similar to 30% of energy as fat (66% of which was the treatme nt fat) providing similar to 6.6% of energy as stearic acid (diet S) or sim ilar to 7.8% of energy as palmitic acid (diet P). On days 0 and 28 of each dietary period, blood samples were collected and anthropometric and physiol ogical measurements were recorded. Results: Stearic acid was increased significantly in platelet phospholipids on diet S (by 22%), while on diet P palmitic acid levels in platelet phosp holipids also increased significantly (8%). Mean platelet volume, coagulati on factor FVII activity and plasma lipid concentrations were significantly decreased on diet S, while platelet aggregation was significantly increased on diet P. Conclusion: Results from this study indicate that stearic acid (19 g/day) i n the diet has beneficial effects on thrombogenic and atherogenic risk fact ors in males. The food industry might wish to consider the enrichment of fo ods with stearic acid in place of palmitic acid and trans fatty acids.