Trans fatty acids: current contents in Canadian foods and estimated intake levels for the Canadian population.

Research conducted in the mid-1990s indicated that the levels of trans fats in Canadian diets were among the highest in the world. The consumption of trans fats raises blood levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, while reducing levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol. In June 2007, Health Canada called on the food industry to voluntarily reduce levels of trans fats in vegetable oils and soft (tub)-margarines to < 2% of total fat, and in all other foods, to < 5%.

Dietary fructooligosaccharides alter the cultivable faecal population of rats but do not stimulate the growth of intestinal bifidobacteria.

The effect of fructans on the cultivable faecal community of Bio Breeding rats fed diets containing 5% (m/v) food-grade fructooligosaccharide (FOS) was investigated. Culturing of faecal material using chicory inulin as the sole carbohydrate source revealed the presence of a greater diversity of inulin-utilizing bacterial species in FOS-fed rats as compared with the control rats, although both contained species which effectively utilized inulin. The majority of cultivable inulin-utilizing species fell within the Clostridium coccoides group and Clostridium leptum subgroup, some of which were related to previously cultured butyrate-producing bacteria from the intestines of various animals.

Effect of dietary fat on whole body fatty acid synthesis in weanling rats.

The effect of dietary fat on body composition, whole body lipogenesis, and enzyme activity was measured in rats over the first 16 weeks post-weaning. Rats were fed either a low fat (5% w/w fat) or high fat (20% w/w fat) diet for the first 4 weeks. After this time all rats were fed the low fat diet.

Carbohydrate metabolism in erythrocytes of copper deficient rats.

Dietary copper deficiency is known to adversely affect the circulatory system of fructose-fed rats. Part of the problem may lie in the effect of copper deficiency on intermediary metabolism. To test this, weanling male Long-Evans rats were fed for 4 or 8 weeks on sucrose-based diets containing low or adequate copper content.

Folate derived from cecal bacterial fermentation does not increase liver folate stores in 28-d folate-depleted male Sprague-Dawley rats.

This study assessed the ability of rats to absorb and store the folate synthesized by cecal bacteria. Male weanling Sprague-Dawley rats were folate depleted by feeding a low folacin AIN93G formulated basal diet for 28 d; they were then fed repletion diets containing folate (0.25-1.