Lowering Plasma Cholesterol by Diet

To the Editor: The article by Dr. Grundy in the March 20 issue¹ requires comment. The data may be correct, but the conclusion that oleic acid has a special effect in lowering plasma cholesterol is demonstrably unwarranted. That claim ignores many metabolic-ward experiments, with 12 to 30 men in each, in which isocaloric exchange of oleic acid and starch in the diet left the cholesterol level unchanged.² Similar experiments by Hegsted's group found no special effect of oleic acid.³ In Grundy's data the change from a diet high in saturated fatty acids to one high in oleic acid produced an….