A small study of women suggested that a diet low in fat and high in fruits and vegetables caused an increase in the plasma levels of oxidized LDL cholesterol, the bad cholesterol.
This finding was unexpected, Dr. Marja-Leena Silaste from the University of Oulu in Finland and colleagues write in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis. and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association.
To explore how alterations in diet affect LDL levels, researchers put 37 healthy women on two different diets. Both diets were low in total and saturated fat. One was low in vegetables and the other high in vegetables and fruits.
They discovered that blood levels of LDL increased by 27 percent in response to the low-fat, low-vegetable diet and 19 percent in response to the low-fat, high-vegetable diet. Both diets also produced small but significant decreases in HDL “good” cholesterol.