Consumer confusion about fat

However, it was the cholesterol consensus conferences of the 1980s in the United States4 and Canada5 that gave rise to consumer interest in the relationship of dietary fat to disease risk, in particular risk factors for CVD, and to the policies and programs that were launched to address this issue. [...] A comprehensive classification of fatty acids on the basis of structure, together with a description of their biological actions and common food sources, is summarized in the ADA–DC position paper on dietary fatty acids.7 Recommended Intakes of Dietary Fat and Fatty Acids The cholesterol consensus conferences in the 1980s recommended a reduction in total fat to 30 percent or less of energy and sat [...] As a result, trans fat results in an increase in the ratio of total-to-HDL cholesterol8 and, in turn, an increase in CVD risk.13 Most of the trans fat in the Canadian diet comes from industrially produced PHVO which is used in the manufacture of margarines and shortenings. [...] There are also small amounts of trans fatty i. The Government of Canada (Health Canada) participated with the Institute of Medicine, U. S. National Academy of Sciences, in the development of the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) which provide the scientific basis for nutrition recommendations in Canada. [...] The difficulty of this task has been exacerbated by the marked change in the knowledge and understanding of the role of fat over the past 20 years, in particular its role in the etiology of chronic, multifactor diseases such as CVD.