Authors:

Abstract

Background

Although the traditional Sri Lankan diet is low in fat content, the incidenceof cardiovascular diseases is high. This probably correlate with high saturated fat and cholesterol intake. This study is to investigate the impact of coconut oil and palm oil as cooking oil media, which are the primary dietary saturated fat sources among Sri Lankans, on cardio-metabolic risk factors.

Methods

The study will be conducted as a sequential feeding clinical trial. The study has been approved by the Ethics Review Committee of Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo (EC/19/046). A total of 40 healthy adults from the general community will be recruited. The study will be divided into two feeding periods of 8 weeks each for coconut oil and palm oil. Participants will be provided the first test oil for the first feeding period and then, the second test oil will be continued for another 8 weeks keeping 4 weeks of washout period in between. The anthropometric and biochemical investigations will be done at the beginning of the first feeding period, at the end of the first feeding period (8th week), at the beginning of the second feeding period (12^th week), and at the end of the second feeding period (20^th week) of the study. The primary outcome index will be the difference in the change in serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration between the two feeding periods. Secondary outcome measures include the serum concentrations of, total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TC and HDL-C), TC/HDL-C ratio, triglycerides, very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, liver enzymes, anthropometry, blood pressure, dietary and physical activity assessment. Data will be analyzed using SPSS v 22.

Discussion

Keywords: Cardio-metabolic risk, Coconut oil, Palm oil, Sri Lanka, Healthy adults