RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: We evaluated whether replacing a proportion of saturated fat with vegetable oils in the diet of young children increases trans fatty acid intake. STUDY DESIGN: Dietary counseling aimed to reach a dietary fat ratio of unsaturated to saturated fat of 2:1 within a total fat intake of 30% to 35% of energy (E%). Four-day food records of 813 3-year-old children were analyzed, and serum phospholipid fatty acid compositions of 25 randomly selected intervention children and 17 control children were analyzed. RESULTS: trans fatty acid intake of the intervention and control children was small (0.8 E% and 0.6 E%, respectively; P <.001). The relative content of serum phospholipid trans 18:1 was closely similar in intervention and control children (1.0% and 0.9% of all fatty acids, respectively). Trans fatty acid intake and serum trans 18:1 correlated poorly with children's serum cholesterol and HDL cholesterol concentrations and inversely with serum phospholipid arachidonic to linoleic acid ratio (r = -0.373). CONCLUSIONS: Trans fatty acid intake of children in Finland is minimal. Dietary intervention replacing saturated with unsaturated fatty acids is safe because it does not increase trans fatty acid intake or the relative content of trans fatty acids in the serum phospholipid fraction.