The effects of
linseed oil (LO) and macadamia oil (MO) on the metabolic changes induced by a high-fat diet (HFD) rich in
saturated fatty acid were investigated. For the purpose of this study, the
vegetable oil present in the HFD, i.e.
soybean oil (SO) was replaced with LO (HFD-LO) or MO (HFD-MO). For comparative purposes, a group was included, which received a normal fat diet (
NFD). Male Swiss mice (6-week old) were used. After 14 days under the dietary conditions, the mice were fasted for 18 h, and experiments were then performed. The HFD-SO, HFD-LO and HFD-MO groups showed higher glycaemia (p < 0.05 versus
NFD). However, no significant effect was observed on glycaemia, liver gluconeogenesis and liver ketogenesis when SO was replaced by either LO or MO. The
body weight and the sum of epididymal, mesenteric, retroperitoneal and inguinal fat weights were higher (p < 0.05) in the HFD-SO and HFD-MO groups as compared with the
NFD group. However, there was no significant difference in these parameters between the
NFD and HFD-LO groups. Thus, the protective role of LO on
lipid accumulation induced by an HFD rich in
saturated fatty acid is potentially mediated by the high content of ɷ-3
polyunsaturated fatty acid in LO.