Objective: To investigate the effects of the short-term high-carbohydrate/low-fat (HC/LF) diet on the serum lipid ratios of healthy young subjects, which meant triglyceride to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL-C), the logarithm of TG/HDL-C [log (TG/HDL-C)], low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C/HDL-C), and total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TC/HDL-C).
Methods: 56 healthy participants with the average age of (22.89 +/- 1.80) years took the normal diet for 7 days followed by HC/LF diet for 6 days. Venous blood samples in fasting were collected between 7 : 00 and 10 : 00 AM on the 1st, the 8th and 14th day, respectively. Serum concentrations of triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were measured by regular methods. The ratios of TG/HDL-C, log (TG/HDL-C), LDL-C/HDL-C, and TC/ HDL-C were calculated.
Results: After HC/LF diet, both TG/HDL-C and log (TG/HDL-C) increased significantly for females (P < 0.05). For the males, these two ratios were decreased although not significant in statistics. When BMI or WHR was taken into account, the two ratios increased significantly after HC/LF diet, but only for the normal females (P < 0.05), not for the females with overall or abdominal adiposity. No significant changes of TG/HDL-C and log(TG/HDL-C) after HC/LF diet were observed between the males with different BMI or WHR. TC/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C decreased significantly (P < 0.05) after HC/LF diet, but these changes were not found to associate with gender, BMI or WHR.
Conclusion: The changes of TG/HDL-C and log (TG/HDL-C) induced by the short-term HC/LF diet are different in healthy young subjects with different gender, BMI or WHR, but there is no significant change happening to TC/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C.