Lipid intakes of Maasai women and children

The traditional Maasai diet of meat, milk and blood is generally thought to be high in fat. Because of this much of the research carried out on the Maasai has been related to serum lipid levels. Few of these studies, however, have quantified dietary fat intake. This paper describes the Maasai diet and discusses the nutritional value of milk and dietary lipid intakes of 127 women and 411 children over a one year period. Lipid intakes ranged by age from 35 to 55 g/day, 35% to 45% of total energy intake, except in children under two years for whom supplementary food alone provided 27 g and 70%. Over two thirds of dietary fatty acids were saturated while less than 4% were polyunsaturates, resulting in a P/S ratio less than 0.08. Cholesterol intakes were below 220 mg/day. Energy intakes were inadequate and were between 65% and 80% of the recommended daily intakes based on body weight, or 50% and 60% of the RDI based on age/physiological status. It is suggested that this is the reason why serum lipid levels are not high.

Key words:

• Kenya
• Maasai
• energy intake
• fat intake
• saturated fatty acids
• monounsaturated fatty acid intakes
• polyunsaturated fatty acids
• P/S ratio
• cholesterol intake
• women
• children