Polyunsaturation of subcutaneous fat and concentration of serum lipids of Israeli Beduin Arabs.

In 55 Israeli Beduin Arabs the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids in subcutaneous fat (which reflects the degree of unsaturation of dietary fat) and serum cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations were all significantly lower in men and women leading the typical seminomadic Beduin life than in men doing western-type work and in housewives of a fixed Beduin settlement. The values were 0.76, and 159 and 72 mg/dl, respectively, compared with 0.93, 187 and 108; P less than 0.001, less than 0.01 and less than 0.02, respectively. In the group as a whole there was a paradoxically positive correlation between P/S ratio and cholesterol (r = 0.37, Pr = 0.025) and P/S ratio and triglycerides (r = 0.46, Pr less than 0.01). The expected cholesterol-lowering effect of the polyunsaturated Israeli diet (P/S ratio about 1.0) was apparently swamped by other factors, dietary and/or non-dietary, involved in acculturation to a western life style of Beduin, among whom coronary heart disease has only recently begun to appear.