When the content of
dietary carbohydrate is elevated above the level typically consumed (>55% of energy), blood concentrations of
triglycerides rise. This phenomenon, known as
carbohydrate-induced
hypertriglyceridemia, is paradoxical because the increase in
dietary carbohydrate usually comes at the expense of
dietary fat. Thus, when the content of the
carbohydrate in the diet is increased, fat in the diet is reduced, but the content of fat (
triglycerides) in the blood rises. The present article will review studies of
carbohydrate-induced
hypertriglyceridemia, highlighting data obtained in fasted subjects habituated to high
carbohydrate diets, data obtained from subjects in the fed state, and metabolic studies investigating
fatty acid and
triglyceride synthesis in subjects consuming diets of different
carbohydrate content. The available data have been recently expanded by new methodologies, such as the use of stable
isotopes, to investigate the metabolism of
sugars in humans in vivo. Given the significant increase in
body weight observed in the American population over the past decade and the changing availability of
carbohydrate in the food supply, future studies of
carbohydrate-induced
hypertriglyceridemia promise to provide important information of how the macronutrient composition of the diet can influence health.