Consumption of a diet high in dairy leads to higher 15:0 in cholesteryl esters of healthy people when compared to diets high in meat and grain

Abstract Background and Aims A higher dairy product intake has been associated to higher blood concentrations of 15:0 (pentadecanoic acid), 17:0 (margaric acid), and 14:0 (myristic acid). This study investigates whether a diet high in dairy products influences cholesteryl ester fatty acid concentrations of these specific fatty acids (FA). Methods and Results In a randomized multiple cross-over study, 13 men and 17 women aged 22±4 years with a BMI of 21.6±2.2 kg/m2 received 3 isocaloric intervention diets (dairy, meat or grain) in random order. For this post-hoc analysis, FA in plasma cholesteryl esters were measured using gas chromatography. We performed a linear mixed model per centered log-ratio transformed FA, adjusting for period, and the interaction between diet and period. Consumed total fat intake per controlled intervention diet was 31.0±0.9 en%/day (dairy), 31.5±0.6 en%/day (meat), and 28.4±1.2 en%/day (grain), respectively. The dairy diet led to higher relative concentrations of 15:0 when compared to diets high in meat and grain, (β; 0.27, 95%CI: 0.18,0.37; p=1.2x10-5, and β: 0.15; 95%CI: 0.06,0.24; p=1.2x10-2, respectively). The dairy diet also led to higher 14:0 when compared to the meat diet (β: 0.34; 95%CI: 0.21,0.46; p=6.0x10-5), but not when compared to the grain diet. 17:0 did not differ between diets. Conclusion The plasma cholesteryl ester fraction after a diet high in dairy was characterized by higher 15:0 levels. Concentrations of 14:0 were only higher when comparing the FA profile after a diet high in dairy when compared to a diet high in meat. Clinical trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT01314040.