Abstract
Objective: To analyse the associations between the intake of fish and marine mammals and risk factors for cardiovascular disease, ie lipid profile, fasting blood glucose, blood pressure and obesity, in a population whose average consumption of n-3 fatty acids is high compared with Western countries.
Design: Information was obtained from a population survey in Greenland: interview data, clinical data and fasting blood samples were obtained from a random sample of Inuit from three towns and four villages.
Subjects: Two-hundred and fifty-nine adult Inuit (74% of the sample).
Results: Marine diet was positively associated with serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and blood glucose and inversely with very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and triglyceride. Association with low-density lipoprotein (LDL), diastolic and systolic blood pressure, waist–hip ratio and body mass index were inconsistent and not statistically significant. The pattern was similar within groups with low, medium and high consumption of marine food.
Conclusions: There are statistically significant associations between the consumption of marine food and certain lipid fractions in the blood also in this population with a very high average intake of marine food. The observation that blood glucose is positively associated with marine diet in a population survey is new and should be repeated. There was good agreement between the results for the reported consumption of seal and those for the biomarkers.
Sponsorship: The study was financially supported by the Greenland Home Rule, Directorate of Health and Research, the Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland, and the Danish Medical Research Council.
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2000) 54, 732–737
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Guarantor: P Bjerregaard.
Contributors: All three contributors participated in the design of the study and the writing of the article. HSP and GM were responsible for the data collection and PB drafted the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bjerregaard, P., Pedersen, H. & Mulvad, G. The associations of a marine diet with plasma lipids, blood glucose, blood pressure and obesity among the Inuit in Greenland. Eur J Clin Nutr 54, 732–737 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601088
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601088
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Should Moral Vegetarians Avoid Eating Vegetables?
Food Ethics (2020)
-
Investigating the effects of arctic dietary intake on lung health
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2015)
-
Serum apolipoproteins in relation to intakes of fish in population of Arkhangelsk County
Nutrition & Metabolism (2012)
-
The association between blood pressure and whole blood methylmercury in a cross-sectional study among Inuit in Greenland
Environmental Health (2012)
-
The Pro12Ala polymorphism of the PPAR-γ2 gene affects associations of fish intake and marine n−3 fatty acids with glucose metabolism
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2008)