Dietary fat and chronic diseases

Abstract EN

-Dietary guidelines for the prevention of chronic diseases usually include several recommendations on fat intakes.

This review, therefore, focuses on dietary fat intakes in relation to cardiovascular disease, cancer and obesity.

Dietary guidelines on the type of fat to eat are issued in terms of the major classes of fatty acids, (saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids).

However such advice may be over-simplistic considering the very variable effects of individual fatty acids - even those within the same class - on atherogenic and thrombogenic factors.

This is particularly relevant in the case of trans unsaturated fatty acids which have more atherogenic effect on blood lipids than saturated fatty acids and therefore need to be considered separately to avoid confounding the assessment of the atherogenicity of fat intakes.

The potentially undesirable effects of a low fat, high carbohydrate intake on blood triacylglyceride (raising effect) and HDL cholesterol (lowering effect) concentration, which may be offset by intakes of PUFA n-3 (oil fish), will also be explored.

The variability of individual fatty acids, including trans, in terms of their impact on blood lipid concentrations, thrombogenic factors and cancer will be briefly discussed.