Effect of Bread in the Diet on Serum Cholesterol

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Abstract
Certain Middle Eastern population groups which are characterized by a very low average serum cholesterol level (and a very low prevalence of coronary heart disease), consume diets which are low in cholesterol, in total and saturated fat, and in sucrose, mainly because of a high content of bread. These diets do not contain particularly high quantities of polyunsaturated fatty acids. In experiments on healthy human volunteers it was shown that both the low saturated fat intake and the low consumption of sucrose were responsible for this low serum cholesterol. In particular it appeared in these experiments that substitution of saturated fat in the diet by bread (polyunsaturated fat intake remaining constant), decreases the serum cholesterol to as low levels as are achieved by substitution by polyunsaturated fat. Substitution of saturated fat by sucrose shows this effect in a considerably smaller degree. It could not be decided whether this effect of bread on serum cholesterol is due to its content of starch only or to both starch and gluten.