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My colleagues in Nutrition Division have been working hard on the Agency's draft Saturated Fat and Energy Intake Programme, which went out for consultation this week. It's an important initiative - two of the major health issues in the UK are cardiovascular disease (CVD) and obesity, and diet has a significant influence on both.

This draft programme contributes to wider Government initiatives to reduce the incidence of CVD and obesity, through reducing population average intakes of saturated fat and helping people to achieve and maintain calorie balance.

The Agency’s recommendation to reduce saturated fat intakes to no more than 11% of food energy is based on advice published by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy (COMA) in 1994, as part of its report on Nutrition Aspects of Cardiovascular Disease.

COMA – now superseded by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) – was made up of independent experts that were charged with providing nutrition and dietary advice to the Department of Health. 

COMA’s advice was recently reflected by the World Health Organization its 2003 Technical Report on Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases.

The Agency’s recommendation to reduce saturated fat intakes is based on a broad range of evidence, primarily from epidemiological studies, which suggests that a high intake of saturated fat is associated with increased risk of heart disease.

Intervention trials have also established that a high intake of saturated fat increases LDL-cholesterol levels, a risk factor for heart disease, although as yet there have been no large intervention trials to establish the direct link between saturated fat intake and heart disease itself.

The Agency is committed to helping to clarify this relationship and is currently awaiting the results of the Agency-funded RISCK intervention trial, which is examining the effects of different amounts and types of dietary fat and carbohydrate on a wide range of risk factors associated with the development of heart disease in more than 500 people.

The RISCK intervention trial is a four-year project, which is due to finish in January 2008 – preliminary data may be presented at scientific meetings before this date.

In its 1994 report, COMA acknowledged the differing impacts individual saturated fats have on blood cholesterol levels and, while the recommendation to reduce overall saturated fat intakes remains valid, further investigation is required before any intricate differences in saturated fat impacts can begin to be translated into nutrition policy. Have your say by responding to this blog, and to the consultation, of course.

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