Effect of low-saturated fat, low-cholesterol dietary intervention on fattyacid compositions in serum lipid fractions in 5-year-old children. The STRIP project

Objective: To evaluate the effect of dietary low-saturated fat, low-cholest erol intervention on fat intake and fatty acid compositions in serum choles terol ester (CE), phospholipid (PL) sind triglyceride (TG) fractions in fiv e-year-old children. Design and subjects: The STRIP project is a prospective, randomised interve ntion project in which 1062 seven-month-old infants were recruited from the well-baby clinics. 764 children participated in the 5-year follow-up; 202 of them were randomly selected for this study. Diet was assessed with 4-d d ietary records. Serum CE, PL and TG fatty acid compositions were analysed w ith gas-liquid chromatography. Results: Saturated fat intake of intervention children (mean (confidence in terval)) (girls 11.9 (11.2-12.6) % of energy intake (E%); boys 12.5 (11.9-1 3.1)) was lower than that of the control children (girls 14.4 (13.7-15.2) E %; boys 15.0 (14.3-15.8) E%) (P = 0.0001 fbr the difference between interve ntion and control groups). The intake of unsaturated fat differed only slig htly. Dietary ratios of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids (PS ratios ) of the intervention and control diets were 0.44 and 0.33, respectively (P = 0.0001). Furthermore, serum cholesterol concentrations of the interventi on and control children differed (4.28 (4.13-4.43)mmol/L vs 4.49 (4.35-4.63 )mmol/L; P = 0.04). Relative proportion of saturated fatty acids in serum T G was lower (34.9% vs 36.3%; P = 0.04) and that of n-6 polyunsaturated fatt y acids higher (13.9% vs 12.4%; P = 0.0004) in the intervention than in the control children, whereas serum CE and PL fatty acid compositions of inter vention and control groups were closely similar. However, intake of linolei c acid correlated better with serum linoleic acid relative content in the C E fraction (r = 0.36; P = 0.0001) than in the PL (r = 0.27; P = 0.0002) or in the TG (r = 0.23; P = 0.0016) fraction Conclusions: Intervention resulted in decreased intake of saturated fatty a cids and lowered serum total and LDL cholesterol concentrations. Of serum l ipid fractions, TG fatty acid composition was the most sensitive and parall elled the findings in dietary food records.