The effect of a combination low sodium, low fat, high fibre diet on serum lipids in treated hypertensive patients

Abstract

The effect of a combination low sodium, low fat, high fibre diet on serum lipids in 184 treated hypertensive patients was analysed in a controlled trial. The combination diet caused a small but significant reduction in serum triglyceride and total cholesterol. This was apparently due to the low fat component of the diet, since a low fat diet alone also caused a similar reduction in total cholesterol, whereas a high fibre diet or a low sodium diet alone caused no significant changes in serum lipids. Analysis of the medication subgroups suggests that diuretics may allow more favourable changes in lipid profile than betablockers. The combination diet and the low fat diet both caused a significant reduction in HDL cholesterol. Thus there was no significant change in the HDL ratio for the combination group and a significant decrease in this ratio for the low fat group. Furthermore the magnitude of changes in total and LDL cholesterol in the low fat and combination groups was much smaller compared to previously observed changes in untreated patients. The overall limited benefit of the combination diet, and possibly adverse effect of the low fat diet, may contribute to the limited effect of therapeutic intervention on mortality from ischaemic heart disease seen in previous studies.