The Effects of Linoleic Acid Consumption on Lipid Risk Markers for Cardiovascular Disease in Healthy Individuals: A Review of Human Intervention Trials

TL;DR

This review examines how consuming linoleic acid affects heart disease risk markers like cholesterol in healthy people.

Contribution

The study provides a synthesis of human trials on linoleic acid's impact on cardiovascular lipid risk markers.

Findings

LA consumption decreases total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein levels.

LA increases high-density lipoprotein concentrations in healthy individuals.

Replacing saturated fats with LA improves lipid profiles linked to CVD risk.

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Risk factors for developing this disease include high serum concentrations of total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoproteins, very-low density lipoproteins, and low concentrations of high-density lipoproteins. One proposed dietary strategy for decreasing risk factors involves replacing a portion of dietary saturated fatty acids with mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). The essential omega-6 PUFA, linoleic acid (LA), is suggested to decrease the risk for CVD by affecting these lipid risk markers. Reviewing human intervention trials will provide further evidence of the effects of LA consumption on risk factors for CVD. PubMed was used to search for peer-reviewed articles. The purpose of this review was: (1) To summarize human intervention trials that studied the effects of LA consumption on lipid risk markers for CVD in healthy individuals, (2) to provide mechanistic details, and (3) to provide recommendations regarding the consumption of LA to decrease the lipid risk markers for CVD. The results from this review provided evidence that LA consumption decreases CVD lipid risk markers in healthy individuals.