Abstract
Background: Immigrants in general seem to be more vulnerable than the host population to developing nutrition-related chronic conditions. This may in part be related to diverging dietary habits, including intake of different types and amounts of dietary fat.
Objectives: The main aim of this study was to investigate the dietary fatty acid composition and the dietary fat sources among first generation immigrant women from Iran and Turkey compared with women of Swedish ethnicity. The second aim was to relate the reported dietary fatty acid composition to the fatty acid composition in serum cholesterol esters, and the fatty acid composition in serum to metabolic variables.
Design: The study was a cross-sectional health survey of randomly selected foreign-born women (n=107) and native Swedish women (n=50) living in Uppsala. This included 24 h dietary recall repeated four times and administered in the native language.
Results and conclusion: A lower proportion of saturated fatty acids, a higher proportion of linoleic acid and a higher n-6/n-3 ratio were found in the immigrants’ diet than in the diet of the Swedish women. The difference in linoleic acid was also mirrored in serum. Vegetable dishes, together with edible fats, were the major contributors of polyunsaturated fatty acids among the immigrant women. While the fatty acid profile in serum among the immigrant women had both favourable and unfavourable implications, a higher prevalence of obesity and dyslipidaemia was observed in immigrant compared with Swedish-born women.
We would like to express our gratitude to Tahire Kocturk and åsa Andersson for performing the 24 h dietary recalls among Turkish and Swedish women, respectively. In addition, we would like to thank Lars Berglund and Rawya Mohsen for performing the statistical analysis and all co-workers at the metabolic ward and laboratories at the unit of Clinical Nutrition Research at the Departments of Public Health and Caring Sciences for their support. This study was financially supported by the Vardal Foundation and the Foundation for Geriatric Research.