TY - JOUR
T1 - Fish intake, erythrocyte n-3 fatty acid status and metabolic health in Danish adolescent girls and boys
AU - Lauritzen, Lotte
AU - Harsløf, Laurine B. S.
AU - Hellgren, Lars
AU - Pedersen, Maiken Højgaard
AU - Mølgaard, Christian
AU - Michaelsen, Kim F.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Marine n-3 long-chain PUFA (n-3 LCPUFA) may have a beneficial effect on several aspects of the metabolic syndrome (dyslipidaemia, insulin
resistance, hypertension and abdominal obesity). The metabolic syndrome is increasing in prevalence during adolescence, but only few
studies have investigated the effects of n-3 LCPUFA in adolescence. The present study examines associations between fish intake (assessed
by a 7 d pre-coded food diary), erythrocyte (RBC) DHA status (analysed by GC) and metabolic syndrome measures (anthropometry, blood
pressure and plasma lipids, insulin and glucose) in 109 17-year-old children from the Copenhagen Birth Cohort Study. Of the children, 8%
were overweight or obese and few showed signs of the metabolic syndrome, but all the metabolic syndrome variables were correlated.
Median fish intake was 10·7 (interquartile range 3·6–21·2) g/d. Boys tended to have a higher fish intake (P¼0·052), but girls had significantly
higher RBC levels of DHA (P¼0·001). Sex and fish intake explained 37% of the variance in RBC-DHA (P,0·001). After adjusting for
confounders, high DHA status was found to be significantly correlated with higher systolic blood pressure (P¼0·014) and increased fasting
insulin (P¼0·018), but no adverse association was observed with the mean metabolic syndrome z-score. Overall, the present study showed
the expected association between fish intake and RBC-DHA, which in contrast to our expectations tended to be associated with a poorer
metabolic profile. Whether these results reflect the physiological function of n-3 LCPUFA, lifestyle factors associated with fish intake in
Denmark, or mere chance remains to be investigated.
AB - Marine n-3 long-chain PUFA (n-3 LCPUFA) may have a beneficial effect on several aspects of the metabolic syndrome (dyslipidaemia, insulin
resistance, hypertension and abdominal obesity). The metabolic syndrome is increasing in prevalence during adolescence, but only few
studies have investigated the effects of n-3 LCPUFA in adolescence. The present study examines associations between fish intake (assessed
by a 7 d pre-coded food diary), erythrocyte (RBC) DHA status (analysed by GC) and metabolic syndrome measures (anthropometry, blood
pressure and plasma lipids, insulin and glucose) in 109 17-year-old children from the Copenhagen Birth Cohort Study. Of the children, 8%
were overweight or obese and few showed signs of the metabolic syndrome, but all the metabolic syndrome variables were correlated.
Median fish intake was 10·7 (interquartile range 3·6–21·2) g/d. Boys tended to have a higher fish intake (P¼0·052), but girls had significantly
higher RBC levels of DHA (P¼0·001). Sex and fish intake explained 37% of the variance in RBC-DHA (P,0·001). After adjusting for
confounders, high DHA status was found to be significantly correlated with higher systolic blood pressure (P¼0·014) and increased fasting
insulin (P¼0·018), but no adverse association was observed with the mean metabolic syndrome z-score. Overall, the present study showed
the expected association between fish intake and RBC-DHA, which in contrast to our expectations tended to be associated with a poorer
metabolic profile. Whether these results reflect the physiological function of n-3 LCPUFA, lifestyle factors associated with fish intake in
Denmark, or mere chance remains to be investigated.
KW - n-3 PUFA
KW - Insulin sensitivity
KW - Plasma lipid profile
KW - Blood pressure
U2 - 10.1017/S0007114511002418
DO - 10.1017/S0007114511002418
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 21736784
SN - 0007-1145
VL - 107
SP - 697
EP - 704
JO - British Journal of Nutrition
JF - British Journal of Nutrition
ER -