The nutrient repercussions of adopting an approved serum cholesterol lowering diet
1997
Jamison, J.R.
This paper describes the dietary repercussions of modifying the usual dietary intake of health-aware young adults to meet the recommendations of the Step I United States National Cholesterol Education Program. A 3-day computer-based weighed dietary analysis was undertaken on a group of second-year students in an undergraduate course training health professionals. The participants were then requested to modify their usual diet in order to conform to the recommendations of the Step I diet. Computer analysis was used to ascertain the impact of the proposed dietary modification on their fibre, calcium, sodium and zinc intake. Most of the participants could successfully manipulate their diet to approximate the Step I recommendations for fatty acid ratios and total fat-derived energy. An untoward repercussion of attempting to achieve desirable fatty acid ratios, given participants' dietary preferences, was that almost one-quarter of the participants increased their dietary cholesterol--in some cases in excess of 300 mg/day. Attempts to conform to the fat requirements of the Step I diet resulted in most participants consuming more fibre and in one in four participants eating more sodium. The baseline intakes of calcium and zinc were low. The dietary changes proposed tended to worsen the calcium intake of a number of participants and improve the zinc intake of women but not men. Dietary modification of fat intake to meet the Step I diet does impact on other nutrients. Although such changes do, in many cases, conform to dietary guidelines, it may be prudent for individuals choosing to adopt this diet to explore the impact of such changes given their personal dietary choices.
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