Dietary cooking oils and cardiometabolic measurements in an elderly Chinese population

Objective: To investigate three features of dietary cooking oil intake, namely, the consumption, cooking style, and composition of fatty acids in relation to several cardiometabolic measurements in an elderly Chinese population.

Methods: The elderly (≥ 65 years) participants for this study were recruited from two community health centers in the urban area of Shanghai. A questionnaire was administered to collect information on dietary oil consumption (low, medium and high) and cooking styles (fry or stir-fry vs. others) and the composition of fatty acids (poly-unsaturated vs. mono-unsaturated). The cardiometabolic measurements included anthropometry, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose and serum lipids.

Results: The 1186 study participants had a mean age of 70.9 ± 5.4 years. The mean dietary oil consumption was 35.0 g/d, being low (< 25 g/d), medium (25-49 g/d) and high (≥ 50 g/d) in 485,467 and 234 participants, respectively. The proportion of the fry or stir-fry cooking style and oils rich in mono-unsaturated fatty acids was 30.4% and 27.4%, respectively. Both before and after adjustment for sex, age, current smoking and alcohol intake, dietary oil consumption was significantly (P ≤ 0.02) and positively associated with the prevalence of treated hypertension and fasting plasma glucose concentration. With similar adjustments as above and additional adjustment for dietary oil consumption, the fry or stir-fry cooking style was significantly (P ≤ 0.048) and positively associated with body mass index, but inversely with systolic and diastolic blood pressure and serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and the dietary intake of oils rich in mono-unsaturated fat acids was significantly (P ≤ 0.02) and positively associated with diastolic blood pressure, serum triglycerides, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and the prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia.

Conclusions: This study showed that both the consumption and composition of fatty acids of the dietary oils mattered with regard to several cardiometabolic measurements in an elderly Chinese population.