A high-fat diet enriched with cottonseed oil drastically improved cholesterol profiles in young adult men, according to a UGA study published in Nutrition Research.
Fifteen healthy, normal weight men participated in a five-day feeding trial to test the effects of diets enriched with cottonseed oil and olive oil on lipid profiles. Participants showed significant reductions in cholesterol and triglycerides in the cottonseed oil trial, compared to minimal changes on the olive oil-enriched diet, according to corresponding author Jamie Cooper.
“To see this amount of change in such a short period of time is exciting,” says Cooper, associate professor at the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.
Participants showed an average decrease of 8 percent in total cholesterol on the cottonseed oil diet, along with a 15 percent decrease in low-density lipoprotein (LDL, the “bad” cholesterol), and a 30 percent decrease in triglycerides. This diet also increased high-density lipoproteins (HDL, the “good” cholesterol) by 8 percent.
Additional authors are Kristine Polley from the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and Natalie Oswell, Ronald Pegg and Chad Paton from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
This brief appeared in the spring 2019 issue of Research Magazine. The original story is available at https://news.uga.edu/study-cottonseed-oil-cholesterol/.
