Use of Semisynthetic Fats in Determining Effects of Specific Dietary Fatty Acids on Serum Lipids in Man

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Abstract
Estimates of the effects of specific dietary saturated fatty acids on circulating lipids have been limited by the composition of available natural fats and oils. Semisynthetic fats have been used to expand the range of variation of particular fatty acids. A series of such products in which lauric, myristic, palmitic, or stearic acids were randomly transesterified with olive, safflower, or MCT oils have been used as test fats in human feeding studies. Although both lauric and stearic acids were hypercholesterolemic under these conditions, they are less so than myristic and palmitic acids. The contrast in the behavior of stearic acid to its almost complete ineffectiveness in a natural product (cocoa butter) suggests that, in addition to the known effects related to both chain length and saturation, the position of a fatty acid on the glyceride molecule also influences its metabolism.