<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>On Friday 09 February 2001 12:04, Christine wrote:
>Hi Phillip,
> What is really signifcant is that the types of
>saturated fatty acids found in butter, namely myristic and palmitic are
>among the most cholesterol-forming fatty acids known. Olive oil
>contains none of these.

Olive oil does in fact contain a significant amount of Palmitic acid; 7.5 -
20% according to Kiritsakis (Olive Oil. American Oil Chemists' Society,
1991). Myristic is only 0 - 0.1% though.

More significant in olive oil are the monounsaturates (chiefly oleic) which
it is believed lowers the LDL cholesterol (the bad one) whilst having little
or no effect on (some studies even suggest raising) the HDL (good)
cholesterol - yes there is such a thing as good cholesterol! So any negative
effect of the palmitic acid will be more than compensated for by the oleic
acid.

Regards,

Adrian
</pre>
</td></tr></table>