The association of plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol with dietary intake and alcohol consumption. The Lipid Research Clinics Prevalence Study

We examined the associations of diet and alcohol consumption with levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol using cross-sectional data from 4855 white participants, ages 20 years and older, seen at visit 2 of the Lipid Research Clinics Prevalence Study. There was a strong positive gradient of HDL cholesterol levels with reported amount of alcohol intake in both men and women, regardless of type of alcoholic beverage consumed. We found a difference in HDL cholesterol levels between the two groups of participants who reported no alcohol consumption during the past week. Those who said that they never drank had lower mean HDL cholesterol levels than those who reported that they did drink but had not consumed any alcohol during the past week. Weaker inverse relations (p < 0.05) were found between HDL cholesterol levels and intakes of total carbohydrate sucrose and starch (percent calories and grams). Dietary saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat intakes were unrelated to HDL cholesterol levels; similarly, no association was seen for HDL cholesterol and total calories and total fat. Cholesterol intake (mg and mg/1000 calories) was generally unrelated to HDL cholesterol levels, except in women not taking exogenous gonadal hormones.

Changes in plasma lipids and lipoproteins after a modified fat diet

20 male and female patients with type II hyperlipoproteinaemia and 10 normal male and female subjects were fed for 11--15 days a eucaloric diet containing less than 300 mg cholesterol with a polyunsaturated to saturated fatty-acid ratio of about 2.0. Male subjects and patients and female patients showed statistically significant decreases in plasma total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels; the change in LDL-cholesterol was not significant in female subjects. The changes in lipid and lipoprotein levels in patients were greater than those in subjects, (except for the changes in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in women, which were similar), which suggested that the magnitude of change depended on initial levels. This difference was not present when the data were evaluated as percent change. Mean levels of HDL-cholesterol decreased in both patients and subjects. However, the proportion of total cholesterol contributed by HDL and LDL, and hence the HDL/LDL ratio, was unchanged from pre-diet levels.