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

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

doi:10.3390/nu13103305

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

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Healthy Weight Center, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Tuborg Havnevej 19, 2900 Hellerup, Denmark

The Nutrition Coalition, New York, NY 10011, USA

Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark

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Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA

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Department of Pediatrics, Dell Pediatric Research Institute, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78723, USA

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Department of Chemistry, Dell Pediatric Research Institute, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78723, USA

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Department of Nutrition, Dell Pediatric Research Institute, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78723, USA

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Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

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Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, ON L8L 2X2, Canada

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Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada

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Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory, Human Nutrition Research Center of Aging, Tufts University, Boston, MA 02111, USA

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IMDEA Food Institute, 28049 Madrid, Spain

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Department of Human Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

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Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada

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Department of Pediatrics, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94609, USA

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Department of Medicine, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94609, USA

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Academic Editors: Susanna Iossa and Deanna L. Gibson

Nutrients 2021, 13(10), 3305; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13103305

Received: 9 August 2021 / Revised: 8 September 2021 / Accepted: 16 September 2021 / Published: 22 September 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards Better Dietary Guidelines: New Approaches Based on Recent Science)

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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. View Full-Text

Keywords: saturated fats; polyunsaturated fats; dietary guidelines; Dietary Guidelines for Americans; nutrition guidelines; cardiovascular disease; heart disease; evidence-based

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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MDPI and ACS Style

Astrup, A.; Teicholz, N.; Magkos, F.; Bier, D.M.; Brenna, J.T.; King, J.C.; Mente, A.; Ordovas, J.M.; Volek, J.S.; Yusuf, S.; Krauss, R.M. Dietary Saturated Fats and Health: Are the U.S. Guidelines Evidence-Based? Nutrients 2021, 13, 3305. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13103305

AMA Style

Astrup A, Teicholz N, Magkos F, Bier DM, Brenna JT, King JC, Mente A, Ordovas JM, Volek JS, Yusuf S, Krauss RM. Dietary Saturated Fats and Health: Are the U.S. Guidelines Evidence-Based? Nutrients. 2021; 13(10):3305. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13103305

Chicago/Turabian Style

Astrup, Arne, Nina Teicholz, Faidon Magkos, Dennis M. Bier, J. Thomas Brenna, Janet C. King, Andrew Mente, José M. Ordovas, Jeff S. Volek, Salim Yusuf, and Ronald M. Krauss. 2021. "Dietary Saturated Fats and Health: Are the U.S. Guidelines Evidence-Based?" Nutrients 13, no. 10: 3305. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13103305

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