The role of background diet on the effects of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid supplementation in healthy pre-menopausal women: a randomized, cross-over, controlled study

Abstract

BackgroundThe links between dietary fat intake, polyunsaturated fatty acid intake and breast cancer risk remain equivocal, with some studies pointing to improvements in risk upon omega-3 supplementation. However, the background diet is poorly controlled in most studies, potentially confounding this link. Therefore, this study examined the hypothesis that in order to see the benefits of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation, the background diet must be low in fat.MethodsOf the 56 healthy, pre-menopausal women randomized to one of two experimental arms, consisting of a two-treatment, randomized, cross-over design, 41 completed the 10 month intervention. The two diet phases (habitual and low-fat) were separated by a washout phase, each lasting 3 menstrual cycles. During each diet phase, women were supplemented with 1.2 g eicosapentaenoic acid + docosahexaenoic acid per day.ResultsRed blood cell fatty acid composition indicated that more eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid was incorporated in the low-fat diet than the habitual diet, though both diet phases resulted in significant increases in the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. In the context of omega-3 supplementation in breast cancer risk reduction, we also measured fatty acid incorporation into nipple aspirate fluid. Similar changes to red blood cells were noted in nipple aspirate fluid, with higher incorporation of eicosapentaenoic acid in the low-fat diet phase.ConclusionsThese data suggest that the total level of dietary fat has some direct impact on fatty acid partitioning in addition to the recognized importance of fatty acid ratios, and supports the hypothesis that dietary fat intake must be considered a confounder in supplementation trials. Additionally, we demonstrate that n3 supplementation both reaches and imparts improvements in lipid content and n3:n6 at the target breast tissue.Trial registrationTrial was been retrospectively registered at clinicaltrials.gov (RegNCT02816125).

The Role of Nutrition and Nutritional Supplements in Ocular Surface Diseases

“…The majority of the available studies on nutritional supplementation for DED did not evaluate the micronutrients dietary intake nor their plasma level, and this represents the major limitation of the existing literature. Background diet should be considered a confounder in supplementation trials [119], and different dietary practices might explain the heterogeneous results of studies conducted in different world regions. For instance, a recent meta-analysis reported a higher efficacy of omega-3 FAs supplementation in studies conducted in India, where diet is principally vegetarian, with negligible intakes of long-chain omega-3 FAs [63].…”

Chemoprevention of Breast Cancer With Vitamins and Micronutrients: A Concise Review

“…The limited conversion from dietary alpha-linolenic acid and the increased consumption of linoleic acid as well as the variation in choice of cooking method imply that protective breast tissue levels of EPA & DHA can be achieved only by direct consumption of these polyunsaturated fatty acids (105,106). It has been evidenced that omega-3 supplementation reaches and imparts significant improvements in the ratio of n-3/n-6 PUFAs at the target breast tissue (107). This justifies a reconsideration of the dietary reference intake for EPA & DHA and provides solid and robust evidence that supports breast cancer prevention by increasing consumption of dietary intake ratios of n-3/n-6 PUFAs.…”

The changing microRNA landscape by color and cloudiness: a cautionary tale for nipple aspirate fluid biomarker analysis

“…Identifying the underlying cause of these different NAF colors in healthy women may explain our findings. We hypothesize that several potential factors may contribute to NAF color such as diverse cellular [54] or bacterial [55] compositions in NAF samples, nutrients and proteins [56][57][58], medications [59][60][61][62] or food intake [62][63][64][65][66][67][68]. But studies addressing the association between these possible factors and color classes are limited.…”