Background: Dietary and lifestyle risk factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The excessive intake of products that could affect atherogenic effect and are rich sources of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and cholesterol conductive the occurrence of lipid metabolism disturbances in the body.
Objective: Evaluation of fatty acids dietary intake and assessment of the students' diets atherogenicity in the aspect of the CVD risk.
Material and methods: The study was conducted in 2011-2012. The study group included 100 females, dietetic students of the Wroclaw Medical University. The average age of the students was 21 years. Dietary habits were evaluated by the 3-day diet record method including one weekend day.
Results: Average energy intake was 1673.9 kcal per day. The average daily total fat intake was 65.4 g and provided 34.5% of total energy intake. The percentage of energy from SFA in the diets of 82% students exceeded the recommended 10% and averaged 13.1%. The average percentage of energy from monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) in the students diets was 12.9% and in the diets of 5% students did not exceeded recommended 10%. The average percentage of energy from polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) was 5.7% and in the diets of 66% students did not fulfilled the recommended 6-10%. About 80% of the students consumed less than recommended 2 g of C 18:3 per day. Insufficient intake of EPA and DHA was observed in 71% students' diets. The average n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio was 7.2 and in the 76% of female diets exceeded the recommended value of 4:1. The diets of 80% of students were considered as atherogenic, because of elevated value of Keys score. The ratio between PUFA and SFA in the female diets was incorrect and amounted to 0.52 (recommended value > 1.0).
Conclusions: Incorrect energy intake from daily diet and improper dietary intake of selected fatty acids in the diets of students may contribute to the development of CVD.