**2. Food restriction induces hypercholesterolemia**

Cholesterol withdrawal by feeding atherosclerotic rabbits a normal diet for 4 weeks significantly reduces LDL cholesterol in serum (**Table 1**). In contrast, cholesterol withdrawal by severe food restriction (only 20% of normal diet) leads to elevated LDL cholesterol levels and a significant loss of bodyweight (**Table 1**), which confirms previous studies showing hypercholesterolemia in healthy subjects after fasting or moderate caloric restriction [15–17] as well as in patients with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa [18]. Several mechanisms may account for hypercholesterolemia including downregulation of the hepatic LDL receptor leading to decreased LDL uptake in the liver, lipolysis in adipose tissue, or increased cholesterol synthesis [15, 17, 19].


Data are expressed as mean ± SEM.
