AbstractThree experimental groups of primates (cynomolgus monkeys Macaca fascicularis) were adapted to high‐fat diets and maintained on the diets for four months. One group (control) was fed a diet containing 25% of lard and corn oil in a 3 : 1 mixture and the other groups received either 25% of rapeseed oil or of partially hydrogenated herring oil. Docosenoic acids were approximately 25% of the rapeseed oil (as erucic acid) and of the partially hydrogenated herring oil (as a mixture of cetoleic acid and cetelaidic acid). Monitoring of physiological parameters did not reveal any important differences between groups. Fecal fatty acids and depot fatty acids showed differences in details of composition from the fatty acids in the diets. These are discussed in terms of intestinal microorganism activity, absorption processes, and in vivo alterations in the primates. In the two experimental groups skeletal and cardiac muscle showed lipidosis. This was especially evident in the apexes of the hearts of animals fed the rapeseed oil and partially hydrogenated herring oil. Fatty acid details from depot fat and cardiac apex triglycerides showed differences and further differences were discerned among the isomeric docosenoic and eicosenoic acids of the cardiac triglycerides. The histopathology of the primate hearts showed a few mild foci of inflammation in all groups which could not be associated with diet, whereas the same diets fed to male weanling rats induced the severe necrotic lesions widely associated with such diets. It is concluded that different species of animals show physiologically different responses to fat‐based dietary factors and that further experiments with primates and with oils containing docosenoic acids are required to determine what, if any, cardiac problems ex