ABSTRACT
Since World War II, the role of dietary lipids in health and disease has attracted the growing attention of many medical scientists, nutritionists, and epidemiologists. This chapter reviews reports on the effects of commonly encountered dietary lipids in cardiovascular disease. It discusses the dietary effects of some uncommon lipids in health and disease such as the medium chain triglycerides (MCT), trans acids, and erucic acid. The chapter also discusses the developments linking dietary linoleic acid, the polyunsaturated fatty acid popularly known as EFA, and the prostaglandins. The prostaglandins are an exciting, relatively new class of biologically active compounds which apparently act as modulators of cellular functions. The commonly encountered dietary lipids can be simply classified as saturated fats, monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, phospholipids, and nonsaponifiable lipids. The amount and type of dietary fatty acids and the amount of dietary cholesterol are known to influence the equilibrium levels of serum cholesterol.
