Dietary Saturated Fats and Health: Are the U.S. Guidelines Evidence-Based?

Authors

Arne Astrup
Nina Teicholz
Faidon Magkos
Dennis M Bier
J Thomas Brenna
Janet C King
Andrew Mente
José M Ordovas
Jeff S Volek
Salim Yusuf
Ronald M Krauss

Publication Date

9-22-2021

Journal

Nutrients

DOI

10.3390/nu13103305

PMID

34684304

PMCID

PMC8541481

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

9-22-2021

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Clinical Trials as Topic, Diet, Dietary Fats, Health, Humans, Nutrition Policy, United States, saturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, dietary guidelines, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, nutrition guidelines, cardiovascular disease, heart disease, evidence-based

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.