Quantitative effects on cardiovascular risk factors and coronary heart disease risk of replacing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils with other fats and oils

Reduced consumption of trans-fatty acids (TFA) is desirable to lower coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. In practice, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (PHVO) that contain both TFAs and

other fatty acids are the unit of replacement and could be replaced with diverse alternative fats and oils. We performed quantitative estimates of CHD effects if a person's PHVO consumption

were to be replaced with alternative fats and oils based on (1) randomized dietary trials and (2) prospective observational studies.

We performed meta-analyses of (1) the effects of TFAs on blood lipids and lipoproteins in controlled dietary trials and (2) associations of habitual TFA consumption with CHD outcomes in

prospective cohort studies. On the basis of these results and corresponding findings for saturated fatty acids (SFA), cis-monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and cis-polyunsaturated fatty

acids (PUFA), we calculated the effects on CHD risk for replacing 7.5% of energy from three different PHVO formulations (containing 20, 35 or 45% TFAs) with butter, lard, palm or vegetable

oils.

In controlled trials, each 1% energy replacement of TFAs with SFAs, MUFAs or PUFAs, respectively, decreased the total cholesterol (TC)/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio by

0.31, 0.54 and 0.67; the apolipoprotein (Apo)-B/ApoAI ratio by 0.007, 0.010 and 0.011; and lipoprotein (Lp)(a) by 3.76, 1.39 and 1.11 mg/l (P