Investigation of Fatty Acids Intake Status and Its Correlation with Body Fat Accumulation in College Students in Gyeongbuk Area
Relationship between lipid intake and obesity has been well-addressed but recent findings indicated that the type of lipid or composition of lipid in the diet also contributes to body fat accumulation and consequential health outcome. The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of nutrition intake including fatty acids, lipids and lipid soluble nutrients between the obese and lean college students and to analyze the relationship between the intake of certain fatty acids and body fat accumulation. Anthropometric elements including body weight, height, body fat and composition were measured, and dietary recall was conducted on a total of 114 college students. Data showed that total calorie intake and total lipid intake were not significantly different between the obese and lean subjects, in both male and female students. However, male obese subjects ate more amount of plant lipids and palmitic acids (C16:0) from their diet (p<0.05), while female obese subjects consumed more linoleic acids (18:2) and linolenic acids (C18:3) compared to normal subjects (p<0.01). Correlation analysis revealed that the consumption of palmitoleic acid (C16:1) and lipid soluble vitamin D were negatively (p<0.05) correlated with body fat accumulation in all subjects and these findings were supported by simple linear regression analyses for those variables. These results implicate that rather than only considering the amount of lipids, suggesting a proper type of lipids or lipid metabolites can be considered in nutrition counseling or education.