ABSTRACT: The intake of fat, saturated and monounsaturated
FA (SFA and MUFA), and omega-6 and omega-3 PUFA has been
estimated in 641 Belgian women (age 18–39 y). Their food intake
was recorded using a 2-d food diary. The PUFA included were
linoleic (LA), alpha-linolenic (LNA), arachidonic (AA), eicosapen-
taenoic (EPA), docosapentaenoic (DPA) and docosahexaenoic
(DHA) acids. The mean total fat intake corresponded to 34.3% of
total energy intake (E). The mean intake of the FA groups corre-
sponded to 13.7%, 13.1%, and 6.0% of E, for SFA, MUFA, and
PUFA, respectively. The mean intake of LA was 5.3% of E and of
LNA was 0.6% of E, with a mean LA/LNA ratio of 8.7. The mean
intake of AA was 0.03% of E. The mean intake of EPA, DPA, and
DHA was 0.04%, 0.01%, and 0.06% of E, respectively. Accord-
ing to the Belgian recommendations, the total fat and SFA intake
was too high for about three-quarters of the population. The mean
LA and overall n-6 PUFA intake corresponded with the recom-
mendation, with part of the population exceeding the upper level.
Conversely, the population showed a large deficit for LNA and n-
3 PUFA. The major food source for LA and LNA was fats and oils,
followed by cereal products. The main sources of long-chain
PUFA were fish and seafood, and meat, poultry, and eggs. From
a public health perspective, it seems desirable to tackle the prob-
lem of low n-3 PUFA intake.
Paper no. L9945 in Lipids 41, 415–422 (May 2006).
Advances in the knowledge concerning physiological functions
of dietary PUFA, in particular omega-3 PUFA, have led to an
increased interest in the food sources and the level of dietary
intake of these nutrients. Alpha-linolenic acid (LNA, C18:3n-
3) is a plant-derived omega-3 FA. Together with linoleic acid
(LA, C18:2n-6), LNA is one of the two essential F
A in the
human diet; LA and LNA cannot be synthesised by the human
metabolism. LNA can be desaturated and elongated in the
human body to its longer
-chain relatives, long-chain n-3 PUF
A
(LC n-3 PUF
A), but the ef
ficiency of this conversion is reduced
by high intake levels of LA, which competes more effectively
than LNA for desaturation and elongation enzymes because
LA is abundantly present in Western diets (1). There is evi-
dence to suggest that the conversion rate of dietary LNA to LC
n-3 PUFA is insufficient to achieve adequate levels, even when
the LNA intake is increased (2,3). Nevertheless, a British study
suggested that women may possess a greater capacity for LNA
conversion than men (4,5). LC n-3 PUFA are not synthesised
by plants, but they are present in animals and in the marine food
chain, EPA (C20:5n-3), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, C22:5n-
3), and DHA (C22:6n-3) being the most abundant in the human
diet. It is via planktivorous fishes that LC n-3 PUFA enter the
marine food chain and accumulate in seafood (2). Therefore,
seafood products are excellent food sources of LC n-3 PUFA.
For more than 30 years, a lot of fundamental clinical and
epidemiological research work has been done with regard to
the relationship between n-3 FA and health, showing the po-
tential role of n-3 PUFA from the diet in the prevention of sev-
eral diseases, in particular cardiovascular diseases (1,6,7).
Moreover, the importance of an adequate intake of DHA, par-
ticularly during pregnancy, is stated, given the role of DHA in
the development of visual functions and the nervous system.
Because LC n-3 PUFA cannot be formed by human cells to a
significant extent, most of the n-3 FA accumulated in the fetal
tissue must originate from the maternal diet (8,9). The knowl-
edge about the beneficial effects of these FA has led to the for-
mulation of dietary reference intakes for the absolute amount
of PUFA, but also for the balanced intake of n-6 and n-3. In
2003, the Belgian Health Council formulated recommenda-
tions for FA intake for the Belgian population, expressed in per-
centages of total energy intake (Table 1) (10). However, there
is a lack of information on the current dietary intakes and
sources for the Belgian population. One of the reasons for this
has been the lack of a sufficiently complete food composition
database (FCDB) for F
A (1
1). Up to now, dietary intake assess-
ments of individual n-6 and n-3 PUFA on a population level
can be found for Japan (12,13), France (14), Norway (15), Aus-
tralia (11,16), and Germany (17).
The aim of this study is to determine the total intake of fat,
FA groups, and in particular n-6 and n-3 PUFA in a population
sample of Belgian women of reproductive age, and to compare
these intakes with the current Belgian recommendations (10).
In addition, the main food sources of these FA have been iden-
tifi
ed.
Copyright © 2006 by AOCS Press 415 Lipids, Vol. 41, no. 5 (2006)
*To whom correspondence should be addressed at Department of Public
Health, Ghent University, UZ-2 Blok A, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Ghent,
Belgium. E-mail: isabelle.sioen@ugent.be
Abbreviations: AA, arachidonic acid; DPA, docosapentaenoic acid; E, total
energy intake; FCDB, food composition database; long-chain PUFA (LC
PUFA); linoleic acid (LA); alpha-linolenic acid (LNA); MUFA, monounsat-
urated FA; SFA, saturated FA.
Dietary Intakes and Food Sources of Fatty Acids
for Belgian Women, Focused on n-6 and n-3
Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids
Isabelle A. Sioen
a,b,
*, Ilse Pynaert
a
, Christophe Matthys
a
, Guy De Backer
a
,
John Van Camp
b
, and Stefaan De Henauw
a
Departments of
a
Public Health and
b
Food Safety and Food Quality, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium