Canadian scientists have developed a test capable of detecting in the blood serum the amount of healthy fats we eat, an information that is especially useful in the case of pregnant women
The influence of diet on health is indisputable and we all know that many diseases come from an inadequate diet. Obesity is the most alarming, by its figures and the consequences: diabetes, cancer, high cholesterol, hypertension, etc. But dietary intervention is also a very effective treatment (and sometimes the only one) to correct these disorders.
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The truth is that nutritional epidemiology is a powerful tool to determine the influence of dietary habits and some foods and to adopt public health strategies based on the findings.
However, it is difficult for participants in these studies to accurately record their own consumption, which leads to biased information, particularly when it comes to high-fat diets.
Nutrient Trackers
A few days ago, we reported on the finding of a metabolic signature that accurately stated the monitoring of a person on the Mediterranean diet. Now, a team of researchers from McMaster University (Canada) has found another method to see the amount of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) in the blood that reveals the intake of fish and whole dairy products, a work published in the ‘Journal of Lipid Research’.
“To make nutritional recommendations, epidemiologists need better ways to reliably assess dietary intake,” says Philip Britz-McKibbin, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at McMaster University and lead author of the study.
“The food we eat is very complex and difficult to measure when we depend on self-information or memory recall, particularly in the case of dietary fats. There are thousands of chemicals we are exposed to in food, both processed As natural,” he adds.
For their study, the researchers evaluated the habitual diet of pregnant women in the second trimester of gestation, an important developmental stage for the fetus. The women, some of whom were taking supplements of fish oil omega – 3s, they were asked to report on their average consumption of fatty fish and whole milk, and then underwent a test with the new technology. They also measured changes in NEFA omega 3s after a high dose of omega 3 fish oil supplements compared to a placebo.
The researchers showed that certain NEFAs in the blood closely matched the diets and supplements that the women had reported, suggesting that dietary biomarkers may serve as an objective tool for assessing fat intake.
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Fence to fats
The main author considers that this test to determine the real fat intake is very important, especially at the present time when this “is one of the most controversial aspects of public health nutritional policies given the low-fat dietary recommendations and the Increasing popularity of low- carb, high-fat ketogenic diets.”
The researchers plan to study what impact NEFAs and other metabolites associated with dietary exposures during pregnancy might have on infant health outcomes in relation to obesity, metabolic syndrome, and risk of chronic diseases later in life.