Dietary Intake of Conjugated Linoleic Acid in a Cohort of Healthy Students in Italy

40 healthy subjects were recruited using advertisements posted at the Catholic University of Piacenza, between January and October 2012. Height (using a stadiometer) and weight (using a Gima scale) of each subject were measured and the body mass index (BMI) was calculated (kg/m2). Subjects who satisfied inclusion criteria were instructed on how to document all food and drink consumed daily for 3 days using a diary previously used in the Italian National Survey INRAN-SCAI. They were asked to eat as usual in subsequent 3 days to emulate as best their habits. They were educated to report also the place, time, number and quantity of serving portions consumed. If they were not able to weight exactly each portion, a photographic atlas developed for the Italian component of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study was used. At the end of the three days the food diaries were checked and for each subject the energy intake was estimated.