• The effect of consumption of wheat-based diets on serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels was studied in eight previously malnourished children. While consuming a control diet of casein, soycottonseed oil blend, and a mixture of sucrose and starch, the serum cholesterol level was 169 ± 42 mg/dl (mean ± SD). This decreased significantly (P <.001) to 108 ± 30 mg/dl after nine days' consumption of an isoenergetic-isonitrogenous diet in which whole wheat or white flour provided all the protein and ± 50% of carbohydrate, and remained at this level for the 27-day dietary period. On changing again to the casein-based diet, the serum cholesterol level rose within nine days to 154 ± 42 mg/dl. There was no similar diet-related change in serum triglyceride values. None of the known mechanisms whereby diet affects serum cholesterol adequately explains these findings.
(Am J Dis Child 131:1119-1121,1977)