Populations with unusually high fish intakes, such as the Greenland Eskimos and Japanese islanders, have been shown to have low risks of cardiovascular disease. Whether these risks are attributable to dietary factors or to unique genetic characteristics of the fish-eating populations is not completely clear. Most studies of fish-eating populations have compared them with groups that differ from them in both dietary habits and genetic heritage (e.g., Eskimos versus Danes). The study summarized here differs from previous investigations in that it compared a fish-eating population with a vegetarian population from the same ethnic group.
A cross-sectional study was carried out among two groups of Bantu villagers in Tanzania. One group lived on the shores of Lake Nyasa and included large amounts of freshwater fish (300-600 g/day) in their diets. (This fish intake is among the highest ever recorded.) The other group lived in a nearby hilly region and ate a vegetarian diet. Blood samples, blood pressure measurements, anthropometric measurements, and medical histories were obtained from 622 people in the fish-consuming village and 686 in the vegetarian village. Dietary questionnaires were administered to about 15% of the study population in each village.
The dietary surveys showed that 23% of energy intake in the fish-eating village was from fish, with three to four fish meals per day. The vegetarians had higher complex carbohydate intakes than the fish-eaters did (82% versus 70%). The fish-eating group had significantly lower mean blood pressures and dramatically lower prevalences of definite and borderline hypertension than the vegetarian group (definite hypertension: 2.8 versus 16.4%; borderline hypertension 9.7 versus 22.3%). Total cholesterol, triglycerides, and lipoprotein(a) were all significantly lower in the fish-eating group, and the proportion of n-3 fatty acids in plasma lipids was higher.
These findings confirm the favorable cardiovascular risk factor profile seen in other fish-eating populations and indicate that it is attributable to dietary differences rather than ethnic differences between fish-eating and non-fish-eating groups.
Paolo Pauletto, Massimo Puato, Mario G Caroli et al, Blood Pressure and Atherogenic Lipoprotein Profiles of Fish-Diet and Vegetarian Villagers in Tanzania: The Lugalawa Study, Lancet 348(9030): 784-788 (21 Sept 1996)[Correspondence: Dr Paolo Pauletto, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Specimentale, Universita di Padova, 35126, Padova, Italy]
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