The quality of dietary fat intake in infants may be associated with a reduction in total and LDL (bad) cholesterol in early life, especially in girls, suggests a new study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Given the increasing obesity rates and the potential link between nutrition in early life and future risk for cardiovascular disease, researchers from Umeå University, Sweden, decided to assess how dietary fat can affect cholesterol levels in infants. For that purpose, they recruited 300 healthy Swedish infants (150 girls and 150 boys) at the age of 6 months and followed them up until 12 months of age. During this period, infants’ diets consisted of breast milk and porridge plus either one of two types of infant cereal or an infant formula based on cow’s milk, introduced at the parents’ discretion. Food intake and growth of infants was monitored on a monthly basis, and blood lipid levels were measured at 6 and 12 months.
276 infants completed the study. Statistical analyses revealed that the mean dietary fat intake was close to the current Nordic Nutrition Recommendations. However, saturated fatty acid consumption was 15% of total energy intake, whereas the recommended maximum is 10%. In comparison, polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) consumption was near the lower end of the recommended range of 5-10% of total energy intake, with almost one third of infants consuming less than this minimum. These results did not differ between boys and girls. Regarding blood fat levels, no link could be established between total fat intake and total or LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. However, girls displayed lower total and LDL cholesterol levels with higher PUFA consumption. Finally, longer breastfeeding was paralleled by lower LDL cholesterol levels in boys and girls.
Combined with complementary results from Iceland and Finland, which share the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations with Sweden, these findings suggest that infants may benefit more from a change towards higher proportions of PUFA and mono-unsaturated fatty acids than from reducing total fat intake. However, parents should avoid over-feeding their children.
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