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Familial Dietary Patterns: III. Daily Fat Consumption

Emanuel Cheraskin, MD, DMD /

Published in The Journal of Applied Nutrition, Vol. 22, Fall-Winter 1970.

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Abstract

Eighty-two dental practitioners, 82 wives, and 82 women (wives of other dentists) age-paired with the wives were studied in terms of daily total fat consumption. For the entire sample, the evidence suggests that there is only a statistically significant correlation in the married couples. The results are very similar to the findings in this same group with regard to daily total calories, total and refined carbohydrates and diminishes, but remains statistically significant, with caloric intake.

Introduction

Earlier reports disclose a significant positive correlation of general clinical symptoms and signs1,2 and psychological responses3 in married couples. Subsequent studies revealed similar parallelisms in regard to blood glucose4 and serum cholesterol.5 This series of reports is designed to study possible environmental causation in the above-mentioned clinical and biochemical areas through a study of familial dietary habits. The first in this series analyzed the total caloric consumption6 and the second considered dietary carbohydrate intake7 in the family unit. This third release attempts to answer the following three questions:

  1. What is the relationship of daily total fat intake in married couples?
  2. How does the husband-wife correlation compare with the fat pattern in the husband versus an age-paired unrelated female group?
  3. What conclusions may be drawn from these two sets of findings?

Method of Investigation

Three hundred forty-one dentists and their wives shared in this study. These individuals are participants in multiphasic screening programs conducted in Los Angeles under the auspices of the Southern Academy of Nutritional Research, in Columbus under the aegis of the Ohio Academy of Clinical Nutrition, and in Florida under the sponsorship of the Southern Academy of Clinical Nutrition. Specifically, three groups were studied: 82 dental practitioners, 82 wives, 82 women (wives of other dentists) age-paired with the wives. The age patterns are summarized in Table I.

 

Each subject completed a seven-day dietary record. The daily total fat intake was calculated by Doctor Michael Walsh, consultant nutritionist, Beverly Hills, California. Table II summarizes the daily total fat intake. It will be noted that there is a statistically significant difference between the husband and the wives. There is no statistically significant difference between the two female groups.

Results

Question One: In order to resolve the first question, a correlation coefficient was performed for the husband versus the wife (Table III) with respect to total fat intake. It will be noted that there is a statistically significant correlation (r = +0.484, P<0.05). Thus, in answer to the first question, the daily total fat consumption is similar in the married couples.

Question Two: Women age-paired against the wives were used as a third group in the study. The correlation coefficient (Table lII) between the husband and the unrelated female is not statistically significant (r = 0.006, P>0.05). Therefore, in answer to the second question, there is no significant correlation with regard to daily fat consumption in men and women unrelated by marriage.

Discussion

Within the limits of this study, total daily fat consumption is significantly correlated in married couples, but this parallelism does not prevail when the husband is compared with an unrelated, age-paired female.

The question arises as to whether men and women with common fat needs or consumptions select each other as husband and wife. To resolve this question, the groups were subdivided as near equally as possible into two age categories. Thus, one group of men ranged up to forty years of age and the other group from forty-one and above.

Question Three: An analysis of a daily total fat intake (Table III) in the husband and wife reveals that in the younger age group there is a statistically significant correlation (r = 0.586, P<0.01). This would tend to suggest some interselectivity among men and women with similar fat ingestion or that marriage quickly amalgamates their individual dietary habits. In contrast, the correlation is not statistically significant in the older group (r = +0.223, P>0.05). Thus, during the earlier years of marriage, there is a statistically significant parallelism in the husband and the wife. As the marriage matures, which can be interpreted to mean more years together, these dietary practices apparently become different in terms of fat intake. Similar age analysis between the husband and the unrelated female and the two female groups show no statistically significant relationship.

Earlier mention has been made that psychological complaints, general clinical findings, blood glucose, and serum cholesterol all show significant positive correlations in the married couples and the correlation increases with age. It is possible that all these parameters may have, as a portion of their etiologic denominator, one or more common participating factors other than age. There is an abundance of evidence in the published medical literature that one such factor is dietary carbohydrate and that it is causally related to a variety of clinical signs and symptoms including psychologic disorders, ischemic heart disease, blood glucose, serum cholesterol, and serum triglyceride.8-13

An earlier study of caloric intake6 revealed that, although the initial correlation between husband and wife was statistically significant, it did not increase with age (Table IV). Another report regarding total and refined carbohydrate consumption suggested that, with advancing age, both total and refined carbohydrate intake paralleled in the husband and the wife. The evidence shown here suggests that the parallelism vanishes with time. Hence, it is unlikely that fat may be ascribed an important role in the genesis of the clinical findings mentioned earlier.

References Cited:

  1. Cheraskin, E. and Ringsdorf, W. M., Jr. “Frequency of Reported Symptoms and Signs in the Dentist and His Wife.” Geriatrics 23, 158 (1968).
  2. Cheraskin, E. and Ringsdorf, W. M., Jr. “Familial Patterns: I. Reported Symptoms and Signs in the Dentist and His Wife.” Geriatrics 25, 123 (1970).
  3. Cheraskin, E. and Ringsdorf, W. M., Jr. “Familial Factors in Psychic Adjustment.” J. Amer. Geriat. Soc. 17, 609 (1969).
  4. Cheraskin, E., Ringsdorf, W. M., Jr., Setyaadmadja, A. T. S. H., Barrett, R. A., Sibley. G. T. and Reid, R. W. “Environmental Factors in Blood Glucose Regulation.” J. Amer. Geriat. Soc. 16, 823 (1968).
  5. Cheraskin, E. and Ringsdorf, W. M., Jr. “Familial Biochemical Patterns: I. Serum Cholesterol in the Dentist and His Wife.” J. Atheroscl. Res. 11, 247 (1970).
  6. Cheraskin, E. and Ringsdorf, W. M., Jr. “Familial Dietary Patterns. I. Daily Caloric Consumption.” J. Appl. Nutrit. 21, 70 (1970).
  7. Cheraskin, E. and Ringsdorf, W. M., Jr. “Familial Dietary Patterns: II. Daily Carbohydrate Consumption.” J. Appl. Nutrit. 22, 17 (1970).
  8. Cheraskin, E., Ringsdorf, W. M., Jr. and Clark, J. W. Diet and Disease. 1968. Rodale Books, Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
  9. Macdonald, I., Krehl, W. A. and Hodges, R. E. “Symposium on Dietary Carbohydrate in Man.” Amer. J. Clin. Nutrit. 20, 65 (1967).
  10. Salzer, H. M. “Relative Hypoglycemia as a Cause of Neuropsychiatric Illness.” J. Nat’l. Med. Assn. 58, 12 (1966).
  11. Pitts, F. N., Jr. “The Biochemistry of Anxiety.” Scientif. Amer. 220, 69 (1968).
  12. Buckley, R. E. “Hypoglycemic Symptoms and the Hypoglycemic Experience.” Psychosomatics 10, 7 (1967).
  13. Yudkin, J. “Sucrose and Heart Disease.” Nutrit. Today 4, 16 (1989).