In order to examine the effect of dietary sugars and oil on serum cholesterol and serum triglyceride levels of male rats, four groups of Wistar strain rats were fed identically in all respects except for the different kinds of carbohydrate for groups I, II and III and for the elimination of oil from group IV. For groups I, II and III, corn starch, white sugar and black sugar with 5% of oil (soybean oil 4: liver oil 1) were fed respectively, and white sugar without oil was fed to the group IV.
Rats given white (granulated) sugar without oil (IV) had the highest serum level of cholesterol, showing 118mg/dl. Rats given white sugar with oil (II) had 89mg/dl, and those that were fed black sugar (III) had 74mg/dl. Rats given corn starch (I) had the lowest, showing 71mg/dl. The reason for this result is that the sucrose content of white sugar is higher than that of black sugar, and this sucrose content level may have played an important role to rise the serum cholesterol. On the other hand, the addition of oil to black sugar acted as a redusing factor, lowering the cholesterol. However, there may be other components of black sugar which may have led to this result.
In regard to the serum triglyceride levels, rats that were fed white sugar with oil (II) were the highest, showing 152mg/dl, and the groups III, IV and I followed in decreasing order.
The effect of sucrose content of the diet to the serum level of triglyceride was not as significant as that of oil.
View full abstract