Effect of the amount of dietary fat on the development of mammary tumors in BALB/c-MTV mice.

The relationship between dietary fat consumption and the incidence of breast cancer, if any, needs to be quantified so that dietary guidelines can be issued for the prevention of breast cancer. Frequently, only two widely different dietary fat levels, often differing in essential fatty acid content, have been compared in animal models. Moreover, the latent period in common animal models for breast cancer is very short and does not reflect the relatively long latent periods in human breast cancer.

[Essential fatty acids in cardiovascular physiopathology].

Numerous studies have shown that a limitation of dietary saturated fatty acids and cholesterol associated with an increase in linoleic acid consumption lowers high blood cholesterol level (a risk factor in the development of atherosclerosis). Besides the importance of dietary fatty acid composition in determining blood lipoprotein concentrations, it has been shown that increased intake of dietary linoleic acid influences arterial thrombosis tendency in rats and improves blood platelet function in man. Linoleic acid rich diets also loffer arterial blood pressure in salt loaded rats and in hypertensive men.

Nutritional evaluation of low-erucic-acid rapeseed oils.

Detailed morphometric studies performed in heart tissue from Swiss mice and Wistar rats show that, in comparison with other edible oils, long-term feeding of the new rapeseed oils, poor in erucic acid, do not significantly affect the incidence of myocardial background lesions, in contrast to high-erucic-acid rapeseed oil. The strong predisposition of the Sprague-Dawley rat, however, to develop myocardial necrosis is re-emphasized. The factors underlying this particularity need further clarification.

[Nutritional aspects of hydrogenated soy oils and their isomeric unsaturated fatty acids].

The results of long-term feeding experiments with three species of animals which received considerable amounts of soyabean oil hydrogenated in different ways confirm the safety-in-use of this type of product. Just like saturated or cis monoenoic fatty acids, monoenoic and polyenoic fatty acids with the trans configuration always have to be supplemented with an adequate amount of cis-cis linoleic acid. The unfavourable effects observed in rabbits after prolonged feeding with one of the studied hydrogenated fats were to be expected in view of the marginal amounts of linoleic acid present in the diet they received.