Consumption of Olive Oil, Butter, and Vegetable Oils and Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors
- Maurizio Trevisan, MD, MS;
- Vittorio Krogh, MD, MS;
- Jo Freudenheim, PhD;
- Alma Blake, PhD;
- Paola Muti, MD;
- Salvatore Panico, MD, MS;
- Eduardo Farinaro, MD;
- Mario Mancini, MD;
- Alessandro Menotti, MD;
- Giorgio Ricci, MD
- the Research Group ATS-RF2 of the Italian National Research Council
- From the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine (Drs Trevisan, Krogh, and Freudenheim), and the Nutrition Program, School of Health Related Professions (Dr Blake), State University of New York at Buffalo; the Division of Epidemiology, National Institute of Cancer, Milan, Italy (Dr Muti); Istituto di Medicina Interna e Malattie Dismetaboliche, Universitá di Napoli, Naples, Italy (Drs Panico, Farinaro, and Mancini); and the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Istituto Superiore di Sanitá (Dr Menotti), and Istituto di Terapia Medica Sistematica, Universitá La Sapienza (Dr Ricci), Rome, Italy.
Abstract
The cross-sectional association between consumption of various fats (eg, butter, olive oil, and vegetable oil) and risk factors for coronary heart disease was analyzed in a sample of 4903 Italian men and women 20 to 59 years of age. The intake of fats was ascertained by an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Increased consumption of butter was associated with significantly higher blood pressure and serum cholesterol and glucose levels for men; in women only the association with glucose reached statistical significance. In both sexes consumption of olive oil and vegetable oil was inversely associated with serum cholesterol and glucose levels and systolic blood pressure. These findings were adjusted for confounding effects of other risk factors for cardiovascular disease. These cross-sectional findings from a large population sample suggest that consumption of butter may detrimentally affect coronary risk factors, while polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats may be associated with a lower coronary risk profile.
(JAMA. 1990;263:688-692)
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2211 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14214-2 99 (Dr Trevisan).
