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Impact of the amount and composition of dietary fat and carbohydrate on metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease risk (RISCK)

Project Code: N02031

27/09/2010

MRC Human Nutrition Research, Elsie Widdowson Laboratory, Cambridge
Jebb, S ; Moore, C

 The metabolic syndrome is a term given to a clustering of abnormalities in blood pressure, increased body fatness, insulin resistance and blood lipids which increases people’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. There is evidence that the amount and quality of fat and carbohydrate in the diet can modify some features of the metabolic syndrome, but a key question is whether low fat, high carbohydrate diets, or moderate fat diets in which saturated fats (SFA) are substituted with monounsaturated fats (MUFA), have differential effects on metabolic risk factors. Whilst randomised controlled trials have helped elucidate the impact of these regimens on blood lipid risk factors, this has not been the case for insulin sensitivity, a key indicator of an individual’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes. In addition it is unclear whether the adverse effects of high carbohydrate diets on lipid risk factors, via heightened insulin and glucose responses, can be alleviated by the substitution of foods with lower glycaemic index (GI). Therefore this study was designed to investigate whether manipulating the type and quality of fat and carbohydrate in the diet would affect insulin sensitivity in addition to other aspects of the metabolic syndrome.

Final report

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