Published Online
on July 1, 2002

A more recent version of this article appeared on July 16, 2002

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Submitted on March 21, 2002
Revised on May 22, 2002
Accepted on May 23, 2002

Fish-Rich Diet, Leptin, and Body Mass

Mikolaj Winnicki MD, PhD, Virend K. Somers MD, PhD^*, Valentina Accurso MD, Bradley G. Phillips PharmD, Massimo Puato MD, Paolo Palatini MD, and Paolo Pauletto MD

From the University of Padova (V.A., M.P., P. Palatini, P. Pauletto), Padova, Italy; the University of Iowa (B.G.P.), Iowa City; the Medical University Gdansk (M.W.), Gdansk, Poland; and the Mayo Clinic (M.W., V.K.S., V.A.), Rochester, Minn.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: somers.virend{at}mayo.edu.

Background—Leptin has been implicated in cardiovascular disease. A diet rich in fish has been associated with decreased cardiac and vascular risk.

Methods and Results—We examined the relationship between diet and leptin in 2 related homogeneous African tribal populations of Tanzania. One tribe consumes freshwater fish as their main diet component (n=279), and the other tribe consumes a primarily vegetarian diet (n=329). In multivariate analysis, plasma leptin levels were associated with type of diet (F=14.3, P<0.001), independent of age, body mass index, body fat, alcohol consumption, or insulin. Both male (2.5±2 [fish diet] versus 11.2±2.4 [vegetarian diet] ng/mL, P=0.017) and female (5.0±1.9 [fish diet] versus 11.8±1.4 [vegetarian diet] ng/mL, P=0.007) fish eaters had lower plasma leptin levels than did their vegetable diet counterparts, even though body mass index values were virtually identical.

Conclusions—A diet rich in fish is associated with lower plasma leptin, independent of body fat. These findings may have implications for understanding the reduced cardiovascular risk in subjects on a high-fish diet.

Key words: diet • fatty acids • risk factors

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