A study shows that eating one meal high in saturated fat can impair the ability of high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), the "good" cholesterol, to ward off inflammation of the blood vessels, which is thought to be a key event in vascular disease.
It can also impair the ability of blood vessels to react normally to stress. By contrast, consumption of a meal high in polyunsaturated fat "does not perturb these measures of vascular health," Dr David S. Celermajer from The Heart Research Institute in Sydney, Australia told Reuters Health.
The findings highlight new ways in which different dietary fatty acids may influence key processes in the development of arthrosclerosis, Dr Celermajer and colleagues note in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
They tested the effect of consuming a single high-fat meal, differing in fatty acid composition, on the ability of HDLs to inhibit molecules associated with inflammation in large and small blood vessels.
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