Content of phospholipids in human diets studied by the duplicate-portion technique

Abstract

1. The phospholipid intake by eight healthy women was studied by the duplicate-portiontechnique, i.e. chemical analyses of duplicates of the food consumed. Their intake of phospholipids was 1·5–2·5 mmol lipid-phosphorus/d, which correspondsto 0·023–0·059 mmol lipid-P/g dietary fat and 0·24–0·45 mmol lipid-P/MJ respectively.2. Choline phosphoglyceride constituted 480–700 mmol/mol and ethanolamine phosphoglyceride 170–240 mmol/mol total lipid-P. Most of the choline in nature occurs as choline phospholipids, the intake of which ranged between 0·91–1·85 mmol/d or 0·15–0·33 mmol/MJ. 3. Palmitate, stearate, oleate, and linoleate were the four major fatty acids both in choline phosphoglyceride and ethanolamine phosphoglyceride. Significant amounts of highly unsaturated, C 20 and C 22 fatty acids were also observed. It was calculated that 13–33 mg/g total dietary fatty acids was consumed as phospholipids. Together with bile phospholipids, dietary phospholipids and their degradation products may be important in the digestion and absorption processes.