Abstract
Background/Objectives:
There is a lack of detailed data on fish consumption in European children and adolescents. We therefore investigated fish consumption patterns, portion sizes and estimated intakes of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA; eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid).
Subjects/Methods:
From the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed study between 1985 and 2006, yearly 3-day weighed dietary records (N=7152) from 1024 subjects (2–18 years, 49% males) were evaluated.
Results:
On 14% of total recorded days fish consumption from 33 different species was documented. In the total sample (in the subgroup with fish intake), mean fish intake almost doubled from 5 to 14 g per day (from 15 to 37 g per day) within the age range. Mean portions of fish increased from 40 to 89 g per portion, predominantly from low-fat fish species. In the total sample mean long-chain (LC) n-3 PUFA intake increased with age from 42 to 141 mg per day (100–324 mg per day in the subgroup with fish intake). Without any fish consumption in the recording period, n-3 LC PUFA intake ranged below 20 mg per day. Within the 20-year time frame, the frequency of fish consumption increased significantly (P<0.0282) from 35% at the start in 1985 to 40% in 2005.
Conclusions:
Fish consumption—even with low intakes as observed here—improves LC n-3 PUFA considerably. Owing to the very low preference for high-fat fish in our sample, the potential of fish intake as an LC n-3 PUFA source was not considered.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Gerster H (1998). Can adults adequately convert alpha-linolenic acid (18:3n-3) to eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3)? Int J Vitam Nutr Res 68, 159–173.
Harris WS (2007). n-3 Fatty acid fortification: opportunities and obstacles. Br J Nutr 97, 593–595.
He K, Song Y, Daviglus ML, Liu K, Van Horn L, Dyer AR, Greenland P (2004). Accumulated evidence on fish consumption and coronary heart disease mortality: a meta-analysis of cohort studies. Circulation 109, 2705–2711.
Health Council of the Netherlands (2002). Dietary Reference Intakes: Energy, Protein, Fats, and Digestible Carbohydrates corrected edition. Health Council of the Netherlands: The Hague.
Kafatos AG, Codrington CA (eds) (2000). Core Report Eurodiet available at:http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_determinants/life_style/nutrition/report01_en.pdf.
Keli SO, Feskens EJ, Kromhout D (1994). Fish consumption and risk of stroke. The Zutphen Study. Stroke 25, 328–332.
Kersting M, Alexy U, Clausen K (2005). Using the concept of Food Based Dietary Guidelines to develop an optimized mixed diet (OMD) for German children and adolescents. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 40, 301–308.
Kersting M, Sichert-Hellert W, Lausen B, Alexy U, Manz F, Schoch G (1998). Energy intake of 1 to 18 year old German children and adolescents. Z Ernahrungswiss 37, 47–55.
Kroke A, Manz F, Kersting M, Remer T, Sichert-Hellert W, Alexy U et al. (2004). The DONALD study: history, current status and future perspectives. Eur J Nutr 43, 45–54.
Lebensmittelchemie DFA (2000). Food Composition and Nutrition Tables, 6th edn Medpharm GmbH Scientific Publishers: Stuttgart.
Mensink GB, Heseker H, Richter A, Stahl A, Vohmann C (2007a). Forschungsbericht Ernährungsstudie als KiGGS-Modul (EsKiMo). available at: http://www.bmelv.de/cln_045/nn_885416/SharedDocs/downloads/03-Ernaehrung/EsKiMoStudie,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/EsKiMoStudie.pdf.
Mensink GB, Kleiser C, Richter A (2007b). [Food consumption of children and adolescents in Germany. Results of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS)]. Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz 50, 609–623.
Møller A, Saxholt E, Christensen AT, Hartkopp HB (2005). Danish Food Composition Databank. Version 6.0. available at: http://www.foodcomp.dk/.
Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (2004). Advice on Fish Consumption: Benefits and Risks. available at:http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/fishreport2004full.pdf.
Sichert-Hellert W, Kersting M, Chahda C, Schaefer R, Kroke A (2007). German food composition database for dietary evaluations in children and adolescents. J Food Compost Anal 20, 63–70.
Sioen I, Huybrechts I, Verbeke W, Camp JV, De Henauw S (2007a). n-6 and n-3 PUFA intakes of pre-school children in Flanders, Belgium. Br J Nutr 98, 819–825.
Sioen I, Matthys C, De Backer G, Van Camp J, Henauw SD (2007b). Importance of seafood as nutrient source in the diet of Belgian adolescents. J Hum Nutr Diet 20, 580–589.
Streppel MT, Ocke MC, Boshuizen HC, Kok FJ, Kromhout D (2008). Long-term fish consumption and n-3 fatty acid intake in relation to (sudden) coronary heart disease death: the Zutphen study. Eur Heart J 29, 2024–2030.
USDA (2006). USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Release 1. available at:http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/.
Valsta LM, Salminen I, Aro A, Mutanen M (1996). Alpha-linolenic acid in rapeseed oil partly compensates for the effect of fish restriction on plasma long chain n-3 fatty acids. Eur J Clin Nutr 50, 229–235.
Welch AA, Lund E, Amiano P, Dorronsoro M, Brustad M, Kumle M et al. (2002). Variability of fish consumption within the 10 European countries participating in the European Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Public Health Nutr 5, 1273–1285.
Whelton SP, He J, Whelton PK, Muntner P (2004). Meta-analysis of observational studies on fish intake and coronary heart disease. Am J Cardiol 93, 1119–1123.
Acknowledgements
The DONALD study is supported by the Ministry of Innovation, Science, Research, and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The present evaluation was supported by a grant from Unilever Deutschland Holding GmbH, Dammtorwall 15, 20355 Hamburg.
We thank Christa Chahda and Ruth Schäfer for collecting and coding the dietary records in the DONALD study, and Diane Pavlitzek for proofreading.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Contributors: WSH analyzed the data and was primarily responsible for the preparation of the paper. MK initiated the evaluation and took part in the interpretation and the discussion of all results. MW prepared the data sets and tables.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sichert-Hellert, W., Wicher, M. & Kersting, M. Age and time trends in fish consumption pattern of children and adolescents, and consequences for the intake of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Eur J Clin Nutr 63, 1071–1075 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2009.40
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2009.40