Serum fatty acids, lipoprotein (a) and apolipoprotein profiles of middle‐aged men and women in South Vietnam

Abstract

In Vietnam, increasing fat consumption is a trend recognized recently in urban areas. To obtain a reasonable nutrition status and prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD), it is necessary to obtain information on habitual fat intake and biochemical parameters as risk factors for CVD in Vietnamese populations. Therefore, from the analysis of serum fatty acid composition, fat consumption patterns in Vietnamese populations in South Vietnam, with different incomes, are discussed in this study. In addition, some risk factors for premature CVD, serum lipoprotein (a) and apolipoprotein concentrations are also assessed in these Vietnamese populations. The study was carried out in men and women aged 40-59 in three different districts: urban (n = 100), suburban (n = 98) and rural (n = 98). The results of serum fatty acid composition analysis reflected differences in quality fat intake among the three populations. The urban population was estimated to consume more vegetable oil but less fish than their rural counterparts. Although serum lipoprotein (a) and apolipoprotein B levels were below the ranges associated with atherogenesis, ongoing attention to dietary fat intake for the prevention of CVD in Vietnamese populations is required.

The thrifty phenotype: An adaptation in growth or metabolism?

“…Although biomedical researchers are clearly concerned with disease outcomes, anthropologists and biologists extend their own investigations to a wider range of outcomes, emphasizing in particular reproductive fitness. The metabolic syndrome, obesity, and cardiovascular disease are common conditions in modern human populations, but typically absent in lean and active populations consuming a traditional diet (Eaton et al,1988; Lindeberg et al,1994; Kieu et al,2002; Samaras,2007) and therefore assumed to have been rare before the advent of agriculture. What then is adaptive about the capacity for early experience to generate long‐term effects on structure and function in humans?…”

“…This range of birth weight variation differs little from that seen in many human populations, but in this population, remaining lean and fit and consuming a traditional diet with low energy density (Prentice and Jebb,2003), birth weight variability was not associated with adult variability in either the glucose/insulin axis or other risk factors for cardiovascular disease (Moore et al,2001). Other populations likewise have minimal rates of cardiovascular disease when consuming their traditional non‐western diet and remaining lean (Eaton et al,1988; Lindeberg et al,1994; Kieu et al,2002), but demonstrate high cardiovascular risk when migrating or exposed to the obesogenic niche (Poston and Foreyt,1999).…”