Dietary Intervention and Vascular Function

It is well established that diet plays an important role in both the development and progression of heart disease. Different types of dietary fat have varying effects on heart disease risk factors. The elasticity of an individual's blood vessels is strongly associated with heart disease risk and recent evidence suggests that dietary manipulation may influence elasticity of the blood vessels with dietary fat (including saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids) as a potentially important modulator. Substantial evidence exists on the effects of monounsaturated fats (type of fatty acids mainly found in olive and rapeseed oil), n-6 polyunsaturated fats (type of polyunsaturated fatty acids found in vegetable oils) and saturated fat (found mainly in animal derived products) on lipid levels. However, the influence of these dietary fats on the elasticity of blood vessels remains unclear.The main purpose of the DIVAS study is to determine the effects of the substitution of saturated fats with either n-6 polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats on blood vessel elasticity and to determine the effects of these different dietary fats on other risk factors for heart disease including lipoproteins and inflammatory biomarkers.