Blood fatty acids reveal your child's diet
Family-based lifestyle interventions can have an impact on children's blood fatty acid composition, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland. The plasma fatty acid composition reflects not only the quality of dietary fat, but also the quality of dietary carbohydrate in children's diets. For example, the relative proportion of oleic acid was higher in children who consumed a lot of sugar, and lower in children who consumed plenty of whole grain products. The findings are in line with the known phenomenon in human body. Excessive intake of sugar stimulates the body's endogenous synthesis of fatty acids, which can be detected in the plasma fatty acid composition. Lifestyle interventions recommending a higher consumption of foods containing plenty of unsaturated fat can have an impact on the quality of dietary fat in children's diets. A frequent consumption of vegetable oil-based margarines containing at least 60 per cent fat was associated with h...