COMPARISON BETWEEN FAT INTAKE ASSESSED BY A 3-DAY FOOD RECORD AND PHOSPHOLIPID FATTY-ACID COMPOSITION OF RED-BLOOD-CELLS - RESULTS FROM THEMONITORING OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE LILLE STUDY

We investigated the relationship between assessment of fatty acid inta ke by a 3-day food record and by capillary gas chromatography of eryth rocyte phospholipid fatty acid. The study was performed in a sample of 244 men aged 45 to 66 years from the general population who were part icipating in the Monitoring of Cardiovascular Disease (MONICA)-Lille s urvey. The relationship between each nutrient and food item and erythr ocyte phospholipid fatty acid was investigated by a regression model o n proportion including each food item and nutrient as a dependent vari able and percentage of fatty acid and covariables (nonalcoholic energy intake, age, alcohol intake, and smoking) as independent variables. P olyunsaturated fat and linoleic acid intake were positively correlated with linoleic acid content of erythrocytes (beta = 0.641 and 0.604, r espectively, P < .001). Monounsaturated and saturated fat intake were correlated with oleic acid (beta = 0.375 and 0.373, respectively, P < .01). Fish intake correlated positively with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA ) (beta = 0.383, P < .001) and negatively with arachidonic acid (beta = -0.509, P < .01). These data confirm, on a group level, a good relat ionship between assessment of polyunsaturated fat intake by a 3-day re cord and linoleic acid content of erythrocyte membranes. These data su ggest that erythrocyte oleic acid content is a marker of both saturate d and monounsaturated fat intake. Copyright (C) 1995 by W.B. Saunders Company