Comprehensive levels of fatty acids in meat: implications for human health

Abstract

There are strong indicators of the link between diets and increased burdens of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and some cancers. Healthy dietary patterns were defined as diets that are high in fruits, vegetables and non-fat dairy (low in saturated and trans fats). The aims of this study were to determine the fatty acid (FA) profile of meat (poultry, pork, lamb and beef) and the calculated atherogenic index (AI) and thrombogenic index (TI). Poultry, pork and lamb contained more monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) than saturated fatty acids (SFAs). Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) demonstrated that the first discriminant explained 56.11% of the total variance and the second discriminant explained 23.85% of the total variance. The established p value of Wilks' test was p < 0.0001. By canonical correlation, the first and the second discriminant functions in the LDA were established as 0.995 and 0.995, respectively. AI and TI values of less than 0.5 and 1.0, respectively, were previously advised. The obtained AI values in poultry (0.37-0.45) were lower than those in pork (0.50-0.53), lamb (0.54) and beef (0.93) meats. The obtained TI values in poultry (0.81-0.87) were also lower than in pork (1.09-1.18), lamb (1.44) and beef (1.93) meats. Beneficial nutrition habits, i.e., nutrition according to the food pyramid and a Mediterranean diet, should reduce the rate of coronary heart disease and result in better health outcomes for consumers.