Abstract
The last decade has seen nearly 20 papers reviewing the totality of the data on saturated fats and cardiovascular outcomes, which, altogether, have demonstrated a lack of rigorous evidence to support continued recommendations either to limit the consumption of saturated fatty acids or to replace them with polyunsaturated fatty acids. These papers were unfortunately not considered by the process leading to the most recent U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the country’s national nutrition policy, which recently reconfirmed its recommendation to limit saturated fats to 10% or less of total energy intake, based on insufficient and inconsistent evidence. Continuation of a cap on saturated fat intake also fails to consider the important effects of the food matrix and the overall dietary pattern in which saturated fatty acids are consumed.
Highlights
Since the introduction of the U.S Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) in 1980, national nutrition policy has consistently advised limiting saturated fat consumption as a central strategy for reducing risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD)
Those reviews that have found an unfavorable effect of saturated fats on CVD events included the Finnish Mental Hospital Study, in 4000 men and women, which showed a significant reduction in heart attacks and deaths among men on the experimental diet in one of the two hospitals included in the study, yet this effect was not seen in the other hospital, or for the women in the trial
Subsequent collections of observational data over time include information on nearly 350,000 individuals [25]. Reviews of this large body of evidence began in 2010 with a meta-analysis by SiriTarino et al, which concluded that available observational data provide “no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) or CVD” [25]
Summary
Since the introduction of the U.S Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) in 1980, national nutrition policy has consistently advised limiting saturated fat consumption as a central strategy for reducing risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD). Saturated fatty acids are defined as those molecules that are “saturated” by hydrogen, without any double bonds. They are found in all foods but are especially concentrated in dairy, red meat, and the so-called tropical oils. This review aims to address the current knowledge regarding the effects of dietary saturated fats on heart disease as well as the consideration of these data by recent Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committees (DGACs)
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