Dear Alice

I agree with you. In my opinion it´s important the object of your research work to decide the standart to use. For example we work in marine species food and the PUFA and MUFA long chain are very much important for us.

Before you decide on how many and which fatty acids you include in your analysis; you must have  hypothesis based on the role of specific fatty acids on the determinants of cardiovascular health related outcomes.  Even if you chose saturated fats , not all are the same in modifying  LDL-chol,  HDL-chol  and Triglyceride levels .  

You need to focus your research after you have reviewed both the epidemiological evidence as well as the clinical studies on the topics. There are short term , long term and life course studies on this topic.    You can start by looking at the FAO/WHO report on Dietary Fats and Fatty Acids  in human nutrition  

Hmmm ... if you are looking at prognostic markers for CVD, CAD, cancer etc, you will ideally need to consider other nutritional variables which clearly also play a role in determining risk. If you start with the hypothesis that an internal milieu that is broadly pro-inflammatory is risk-denoting (which seems to be a very reasonable one), then combining the omega 6:3 ratio (and absolute %) in cell membranes PLUS the polyphenol content of the lipoprotein fractions is probably going to have high predicative value.

Dear Susana Risso, Ricardo Uauy and Paul R Clayton

Thank you very much for your great recommendations. They are very helpful.

I am investigating the association of dietary and phospholipid fatty acids with obesity and Metabolic syndrome in black South Africans. Unfortunately, there is limited evidence on fatty acids and CVD in this population. But I do agree with all your recommendations. 

I will be specific to the fatty acids related to my outcomes. 

Please feel free to recommend any publications I should review.

 Thank you very much.

Alice Ojwang 

Dear Prof. Ricardo Uauy,

You mentioned there are short term courses on this topic (fatty acids). Could you please recommend. I will appreciate. Very kind regards

Alice 

Hi Alice,

When you venture into fatty acids [whether plasma/ PL/RBC etc ] you still need to ensure the 1st rule- identification of 95% or more of FAs. This ensures you are working optimally to obtain sufficient FA patterns and you do not misinterpret individual FA proportions. Particularly too much noise in GC patterns will overshadow your minor individual lipids such as the n-3 PUFAs.  So if your intention is to look at n-6:n-3 FA ratios or quantify trans FAs, you have to take care to avoid false negative/ positive data interpretations.