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Effects of fat free diet on fatty acid composition in different tissues

Lipid and lipoprotein metabolism disorders are undoubtedly one of the major risk factors in the development of atherosclerosis, diabetes, obesity and many other diseases. Cholesterol and dietary fats were claimed to be &#8220 ; ; health enemies&#8221 ; ; and the fear from lipids was developed, resulting in the efforts for total lipid elimination from the diet. Although the reduction in dietary fat content may have beneficial and therapeutic effects in some heart and blood vessel or gastrointestinal diseases, it is well known that such low fat or even fat free diets, applied for a longer period of time, induce symptoms of essential fatty acids deficiency. In the last few decades, numerous studies have been performed to elucidate the importance of essential fatty acids, as well as the effects of dietary n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids on lipid, especially cholesterol and triacylglycerol metabolism. The aim of our study was to elucidate qualitative and quantitative differences in the fatty acid composition of lipids in rats fed control diet (CD) and fat free diet (FFD, fats &#61500 ; ; 1 % of total energy content). Changes in fatty acid composition of whole lipids from brain, heart, liver and erythrocytes from animals fed FFD were detected as increased percentage of stearic and monounsaturated (C16:1, n-7 ; C18:1, n-9 ; C24:1, n-9 ; ) fatty acids (5 to 15%), with concomitant decrease of linolenic and arachidonyc acid (up to 10 and 15 %, respectively). It was shown that cells tend to compensate disturbances caused by a diet in order to maintain the adequate saturated/unsaturated fatty acids ratio. Similar results of other researchers lead to the conclusion that no one fatty acid is "healthy" per se, but the ratio of n-3 / n-6 unsaturated fatty acids has to be maintained.

fat; free diet; fatty acid composition; liver; brain; heart; erythrocytes

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