Mandatory trans fat labeling regulations and nationwide product reformulations to reduce trans fatty acid content in foods contributed to lowered concentrations of trans fat in Canadian women's breast milk samples collected in 2009-2011.

Background: Recent efforts in Canada to reduce industrial trans fatty acids (TFAs) in foods include mandated inclusion of TFA content on food labels and recommendations by Health Canada that encourage the food industry to voluntarily limit TFA content in all vegetable oils and soft margarines and in all other prepackaged foods to <2% and <5% of total fat, respectively.

Objective: To assess the impact of these efforts, we measured the concentration of TFAs in human breast milk samples.

Design: The TFA content in 639 breast milk samples collected in 2009, 2010, and 2011 from breastfeeding mothers in 10 major cities across Canada was analyzed by gas chromatography.

Increasing Dietary alpha-linolenic acid enhances tissue levels of long-chain n-3 PUFA when linoleic acid intake is low in hamsters.

Background/aims: We tested whether feeding hamsters diets varying in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) content and low in linoleic acid (LA) could increase the tissue levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to the same extent as a fish oil-supplemented diet.

Methods: For 5 weeks, 60 hamsters were fed 1 of the following 5 diets containing 2% of total dietary energy (TE) as LA and either 0.5% (diet A), 1% (diets B and E), 2% (diet C), or 4% (diet D) ALA of TE, so that the ratio of LA/ALA was 4:1, 2:1, 1:1, or 1:2.

Impact of dietary protein on lipid metabolism in hamsters is source-dependent and associated with changes in hepatic gene expression.

This study tested the hypothesis that protein source is a factor determining the impact of the diet on lipid metabolism in hamsters. Twenty-eight hamsters of similar body weight were assigned for a period of 8 weeks to one of the following four diets (seven per group) containing either 20 % (w/w) casein (CAS), beef protein (BF), wheat gluten (WG) or soya protein (SOY). The fat composition of the diet was the same (15.

Effects of supplemental cystine or methionine on growth and lifespan of stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive (SHRSP) rats are considered a suitable model for studying the effects of dietary and other environmental factors on human essential hypertension and haemorrhagic stroke. To investigate the suitability of a control diet for this strain of rats, we studied the effects of supplementing casein and soya protein isolate (SPI) with two sulphur amino acids (methionine and cystine) on the growth and lifespan of SHRSP rats. The source of dietary protein and the type of supplemental sulphur amino acid had significant (P < 0.

Impact of dietary fat on Th1/Th2 cytokine gene expression in the pancreas and gut of diabetes-prone BB rats.

The effect of dietary n-3 or n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids on the development of autoimmune insulitis was analysed in diabetes-prone BB rats. Litter-matched groups of rats received a standard open formula NIH-07 (National Institutes of Health, NIH) diet enriched with 10% fish oil, 10% flaxseed oil or with 10% palm oil plus 2% cholesterol during the period of insulitis onset (50-70 days of age). Analysis of cytokine gene expression in pancreatic RNA revealed an increase of IFN-gamma and a decrease of IL-10 mRNA with onset of insulitis.