Abstract
BackgroundIncreasing land restrictions and a reduced livestock-to-human ratio during the 20th century led the Maasai to lead a more sedentary, market-orientated lifestyle. Although plant-derived food nowadays contributes substantially to their diet, dairy products being high in saturated fatty acids (SFA) and low in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) still are an important energy source. Since reliable data regarding the Maasai diet date back to the 1980s, the study objective was to document current diet practices in a Kenyan Maasai community and to investigate the fatty acid distribution in diet and red blood cells.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among 26 Maasai (20 women, 6 men) from Loodokilani, Kajiado District, Kenya. Food intake was described by the subjects via 24-h recall, and both food and blood samples were analysed.ResultsTwo main foods - milk and ugali - constituted the Maasai diet in this region. A total of 0.9 L of milk and 0.6 kg of ugali were consumed per person and day to yield an energy intake of 7.6 MJ/d per person. A major proportion of ingested food contributing 58.3% to the total dietary energy (en%) was plant-derived, followed by dairy products representing 41.1 en%. Fat consumed (30.5 en%) was high in SFA (63.8%) and low in PUFA (9.2%). Long-chain n-3 PUFA (EPA, DPA and DHA) made up only 0.15% of the ingested fatty acids, but 5.9% of red blood cell fatty acids.ConclusionThe study indicates the Maasai diet is rich in SFA and low in PUFA. Nevertheless, red blood cells are composed of comparable proportions of long-chain n-3 PUFA to populations consuming higher amounts of this fatty acid group.
Highlights
Increasing land restrictions and a reduced livestock-to-human ratio during the 20th century led the Maasai to lead a more sedentary, market-orientated lifestyle
We investigated the extent to which the allegedly high dietary proportion of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and low proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) was reflected in the red blood cells of the Maasai
Homewood et al [17] reported a dry season milk intake of 809 g/African Adult Male Equivalent (AAME)/d for Tanzanian Maasai (August 1981, dry season), which meant that women (0.86 × AAME) consumed 696 g milk per person and day
Summary
Increasing land restrictions and a reduced livestock-to-human ratio during the 20th century led the Maasai to lead a more sedentary, market-orientated lifestyle. During the 20th century, increasing land restrictions and a reduced livestock-to-human ratio led the Maasai to lead a more sedentary, market-orientated lifestyle and for the past decades consumption of food from plant sources has gradually increased contributing substantially to their diet [5,6]. Despite this increasing ingestion of plant-derived food, dairy fat, high in saturated fatty acids (SFA) and low in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), is still the main dietary fat source [7]. These fatty acids, are important in humans for the development of the brain and retina and health in general [10]
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