Journal article
Balancing omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF)
- Abstract:
- Ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) are a key component of a life-saving treatment for young children who present with uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition in resource limited settings. Increasing recognition of the role of balanced dietary omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in neurocognitive and immune development led two independent groups to evaluate RUTFs. Jones et al. (BMC Med 13:93, 2015), in a study in BMC Medicine, and Hsieh et al. (J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2015), in a study in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, reformulated RUTFs with altered PUFA content and looked at the effects on circulating omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) status as a measure of overall omega-3 status. Supplemental oral administration of omega-3 DHA or reduction of RUTF omega-6 linoleic acid using high oleic peanuts improved DHA status, whereas increasing omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid in RUTF did not. The results of these two small studies are consistent with well-established effects in animal studies and highlight the need for basic and operational research to improve fat composition in support of omega-3-specific development in young children as RUTF use expands.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 953.0KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1186/s12916-015-0352-1
Authors
- Publisher:
- BioMed Central
- Journal:
- BMC Medicine More from this journal
- Volume:
- 13
- Issue:
- 1
- Pages:
- 117
- Publication date:
- 2015-05-15
- Acceptance date:
- 2015-04-23
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1741-7015
- ISSN:
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1741-7015
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:524971
- UUID:
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uuid:d624914d-ac85-4a0a-a6f9-3eb317be3383
- Local pid:
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pubs:524971
- Source identifiers:
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524971
- Deposit date:
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2016-05-03
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- J Thomas Brenna et al
- Copyright date:
- 2015
- Notes:
- This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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