The objective of this study was to determine the association between dietary intake of fats, waist to hip ratio (WHR), body mass index (BMI), and blood lipoproteins and total cholesterol (TC) using food frequency data in one group of apparently healthy, urban African American women and their daughters (n = 110). Subjects were fasted when blood was drawn, waist and hip circumferences and body weight and height were measured, and WHR and BMI were calculated.

Average daily total fat intakes were 91.46 g and 77.83 g for mothers and daughters, respectively, but average LDL levels of 104.4 g/L and 103.1 g/L were low compared to the NIH cutoff point for normal LDL of less than 130 g/L. The data support the recent findings that race may exert an independent effect on the relationship between high dietary fat intakes and blood lipid values in that high dietary fat intakes were not significantly correlated with high levels of circulating lipids for these relatively young African American females.