Sex Differences in the Response of Postprandial Lipemia to a Change from a Low-Fat Low-Cholesterol Diet to a High-Fat High-Cholesterol Diet

J. Kovář, R. Poledne

Received September 3, 1998
Accepted January 11, 1999

Summary
To determine whether a short-term change in dietary habits affects postprandial lipemia in men and women in the same way, postprandial triglyceridemia was measured in age- and BMI-matched young healthy men and women after two weeks on the self-selected low-fat low-cholesterol (LF) diet and after another two weeks on the self-selected high-fat high-cholesterol (HF) diet. After a standardized challenge meal (1.4 g fat/kg of body weight), men had higher postprandial triglyceridemia than women on the HF diet but no such difference was observed on the LF diet. The results of this preliminary study suggest that there may be important sex differences in the mechanisms regulating the postprandial lipemia response to different diets, women being able to adapt better to the HF diet with respect to postprandial lipemia.

Reprint requests
RNDr. J. Kovář, PhD, Laboratory for Atherosclerosis Research, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Vídeňská 1958/9, 140 21 Prague 4, Czech Republic. e-mail: jan.kovar@medicon.cz