Intake of oxycholesterols and oxyphytosterols in Japanese meals

Cholesterol and phytosterols, which are present in animal- and plant-derived foods, are oxidized during cooking, processing and storage. Up to now it has not been clarified how much oxidized plant sterol is consumed by the Japanese. The objective of this Study was to evaluate the intake of oxycholesterols and oxyphytosterols by measuring them in meanls for 19 days using GC-MS in the electronic impact mode and the selected ion monitoring mode. The daily intake of cholesterol and oxycholesterols was 258 +- 14 and 2. 15 +- 0.32 mg, respectively. The corresponding values for phytosterols and oxyphytosterols were 133 +- 6 and 2.48 +-0.15 mg, respectively. There was no consistent relationship between the dietary levels of sterols and those of oxysterols. These results suggest that the Japanese consume as much oxycholesterols as oxyphytosterols.