Health benefits of dietary fat reduction by a novel fat replacer: Mimix

The primary goals of this study were to identify any health benefits of the replacement of dietary fat with a novel fat replacer, Mimix, and to assure that the consumption of this fat replacer did not convey any deleterious h ealth effects. Male, weanling, Fischer 344 rats were fed one of six diets c ontaining between 5 and 20% w/w as fat for 8 weeks. These diets included tw o high fat diets (safflower oil or lard), a low fat diet and three diets wh ere 15% of the fat in the high fat diets was replaced with various amounts of Mimix. When animals were fed a diet rich in saturated fat they consumed significantly more energy than other diet groups. When 15% saturated fat (l ard) was replaced with safflower oil animals adjusted their food intake so that no difference in energy intake was observed between the high safflower diet and the low fat and Mimix diets. When the various Mimix fat replaceme nts were compared to animals fed a high fat lard diet there was incomplete compensation of energy intake. Animals fed the high fat lard diet also had higher glucose and total serum cholesterol than their low fat and fat repla cement counterparts. Feeding a high fat safflower oil diet to rats resulted in a significantly lower total serum cholesterol and serum triglyceride th an all other diets. Replacement of dietary fat with Mimix demonstrated no d eleterious effects on the heart, liver and intestinal tract that were all o f normal weight, morphology and colour compared to other diet groups. Body composition analysis demonstrated that animals fed high fat diets had highe r body fat mass at the expense of lean body mass. This was most obvious for animals fed high fat lard diets who had heavier epididymal fat pads. These data demonstrate that the replacement of dietary fat with the novel fat re placer Mimix can convey a number of health benefits in the absence of any d eleterious effects.