Volume 91, Issue 3, March (2004), pp. 491-500 © The Author 2004
doi:10.1079/BJN20031034

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Dietary lipids and vascular function: UK Food Standards Agency workshop report

Peter Sanderson¹, Margreet Olthof², Robert F. Grimble³, Philip C. Calder³, Bruce A. Griffin⁴, Nicole M. de Roos⁵, Jill J. F. Belch⁶, David P. R. Muller⁷, Joseph A. Vita^8
1Nutrition Division, Food Standards Agency, London, UK
²Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, Human Nutrition and Epidemiology, Wageningen, The Netherlands
³Institute of Human Nutrition, School of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hants, ., UK
⁴Centre for Nutrition and Food Safety, School of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK
⁵UMC Utrecht, Division of Dietetics, Utrecht, The Netherlands
⁶Vascular Diseases Research Unit, Department of Medicine, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee, UK
⁷Institute of Child Health, London, UK
⁸Section of Cardiology, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

 (Received 3 September 2003–Accepted 29 September 2003)

The UK Food Standards Agency convened a group of expert scientists to review current research investigating the effect of dietary lipids on vascular function. The workshop highlighted the need for intervention studies to be sufficiently powered for these measures and that they should be corroborated with other, more validated, risk factors for CVD. Work presented at the workshop suggested a beneficial effect of long-chain n-3 PUFA and a detrimental effect of trans fatty acids. The workshop also considered the importance of the choice of study population in dietary intervention studies and that ‘at risk’ subgroups within the general population may be more appropriate than subjects that are unrepresentatively healthy.

Keywords:
Vascular function Dietary lipids n-3 Polyunsaturated fatty acids Fish oils trans Fatty acids Saturated fatty acids Food Standards Agency

Abbreviations:
DHA, docosahexaenoic acid, FSA, Food Standards Agency, FMD, flow-mediated dilatation