Dietary fat under fire

Researchers at the Institute of nutrition and functional foods (INAF) of Université Laval are calling for a review of dietary recommendations on saturated fat (SFA) in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD). The association between saturated fat and cardiovascular risk has become a hot topic in nutrition.

In a new paper published today in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, the authors provide a number of arguments for the urgency to re-assess the association between dietary saturated fat and cardiovascular risk. As there are currently no harmonized dietary guidelines in Canada for the prevention of CVD, the authors urge the Canadian nutrition community to revisit the guidelines and develop recommendations that reflect both the current food reality and the latest science.

"We believe that evidence regarding the impact of dietary SFA on CVD risk factors other than LDL-C and evidence regarding whole foods rather than just SFA, both from clinical as well as epidemiological perspectives, need to be considered in the future," write the authors in the paper's conclusion. "Because we believe that focussing on SFA in dietary guidelines may not have yielded full benefits in terms of cardiovascular prevention, considering the impact of individual SFA on CVD risk may also be an inappropriate route to undertake in the future."