Mediterranean Diet and Life Style: Comparison with Japanese and Other Eastern Diets Véronique Chajès1,2, Solve Elmståhl3, Carmen Martinez-Garcia4, Anne Linda Van Kappel1, Franca Bianchini1, Rudolf Kaaks1 and Elio Riboli1 1 Unit of Nutrition and Cancer, International Agency for Research on Cancer, 150 cours Albert Thomas, 69372 Lyon Cédex 08, France 2 Université François Rabelais, 2 bis, boulevard Tonnellé, 37032 Tours Cedex, France 3 Department of Community Medicine, Lund University, Malmö University Hospital, S-20502 Malmö, Sweden, UPRES-EA 2103 4 Granada Cancer Registry, Escuela Andaluza de Salud Publica, E-18080 Granada, Spain Summary We conducted a first pilot study on healthy women living in two countries with different dietary habits, Granada in the south of Spain and Malmö in the south of Sweden, in order to compare their levels of plasma phospholipid fatty acids, and to examine the relationship between the differences in food consumption. This study is part of a pilot study which is nested in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, a multi-centre prospective cohort study on diet, plasma concentrations of antioxidants and fatty acids, and markers of oxidative stress. Thirty-nine women in Granada and thirty-eight women in Malmö, aged 45­50 years (all pre-menopausal) were selected among the female participants in the cohorts from these two countries. Individual measurements of the women's habitual diet were obtained by a food frequency questionnaire. 24-hour diet recalls were used for the standardised measurement of diet at group level. Plasma phospholipid fatty acid composition was determined by capillary gas chromatography. We found a different fatty acid profile in plasma between the two populations, with higher mean levels of palmitic acid (16:0), palmitoleic acid (16:1) (n-7), oleic acid (18:1), alpha-linolenic acid (18:3) (n-3) and eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5) (n-3), and lower mean levels of stearic acid (18:0) in Malmö compared to Granada. Women in Malmö consumed more meat, alcoholic beverages and sugar, and less fish and shellfish than women in Granada. We conclude that the fatty acid composition in plasma phospholipids is different between women from the two European centres. For polyunsaturated fatty acids, differences were observed for (n-3) fatty acids. In relation to these differences, we observed that specific food intakes, particularly meat and fish, varied between the two centres. International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research, Band 71, 2001, Heft 4, © Verlag Hans Huber AG, Bern Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.