The demographic changes anticipated in the U.S. over the next decade magnify the importance of addressing health disparities among minority populations. Chinese Americans are a fast growing minority subgroup, yet there is limited and inconsistent data on the impact of dietary acculturation and subsequent cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in this population. This discrepancy could be related to the subjective nature of the assessment tools used to collect dietary data along with cultural/linguistic barriers to the implementation of these methods. We hypothesized that higher acculturation status will be associated with dietary patterns that more closely resemble the typical U.S. diet and subsequently with a higher risk of CVD in Chinese Americans (N=225). Dietary intake was evaluated using plasma concentrations of validated objective plasma nutrient biomarkers: phylloquinone for green leafy vegetables/vegetable oils and partially-hydrogenated fat; phospholipid concentrations of 15:0 and 20:4n-6 for dairy and meat, omega 3 for fish,
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(18:1n-9T, 18:1n-7T) for partially-hydrogenated fat; carotenoids for fruit and vegetables (F&V) including carotene (green/yellow/orange F&V), cryptoxanthin (orange/red F&V), lutein/zeaxanthin (green leafy vegetables), lycopene (tomatoes, mainly from pizza and pasta sauce); and isoflavones (genistein, diadzein) for soy containing foods. The biomarker data was then correlated with acculturation status (assessed using the Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation scale) as well as the CVD risk factor data. Results (for all r values, p<0.05) indicate that higher dominant culture identification was associated with higher 15:0, 18:1n-7T and lycopene intakes (r=0.11, r=0.14 and r=0.15, respectively), while higher ethnic culture identification was associated with higher plasma phylloquinone (r=0.12) and isoflavone (r=0.34) concentrations. With regard to CVD risk factors, plasma LDL-cholesterol was positively associated with 20:4n-6 (r=0.13) and inversely associated with lutein (r=-0.13) and zeaxanthin (r=-0.12) concentrations. Plasma triglyceride was positively associated with carotene (r=0.14); plasma insulin was also positively associated with carotene (r=0.15), lycopene (r=0.120 and 15:0 (r=0.11); while plasma glucose was positively associated with 18:1n-9T (r=0.16), 18:1n-7T (r=0.12) and zeaxanthin (r=0.20) concentrations. These results indicate that higher acculturation status is associated with dietary patterns that more closely resemble the typical U.S. diet, as reflected by higher concentrations of dietary biomarkers for meat, dairy and tomato based products and partially-hydrogenated fat intake; and lower fruit, vegetable and soy intake and subsequently an unfavorable CVD risk profile.
Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals in the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases
