Expert Workshop on Saturated Fat and Health:
A Nutrient or Food Approach?
On February 10-11, leading nutrition scientists, mainly from the U.S., convened in Washington D.C. for a workshop entitled “Saturated Fats: A Food or Nutrient Approach?” to review the scientific research on the health effects of saturated fats. Participants in the workshop agreed to a consensus statement, which can be found below.
Participants also sent a letter to the Secretaries of USDA-HHS, which co-issue the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the nation’s most influential nutrition policy. This letter stated:
[W]e respectfully request that USDA-HHS give serious and immediate consideration to lifting the limits placed on saturated fat intake for the upcoming 2020 Dietary Guideline for America. This request is based on a review of the most rigorous scientific data available.
Like you, we have a deep commitment to ensuring that population-wide nutrition recommendations are based on rigorous science. Concurrently, we share the concern that making recommendations based on anything but the most rigorous science available is likely to have unintended or even potentially harmful consequences to health.
During the course of the workshop, we discussed the latest scientific understanding of saturated fatty acids and their potential connection to heart disease and stroke. Broadly speaking, we concluded that the best and most updated science fails to support current limits on consuming these fats.
The workshop was organized by co-chairs, Drs. Arne Astrup and Ronald M. Krauss. The Nutrition Coalition, a non-profit group without any industry funding, sponsored the workshop.
For more information or to arrange an interview with a workshop participant, please contact Hannah at Press@nutritioncoalition.us
Consensus Statement by Workshop Participants
Letter to Secretaries of the USDA
Press Release
Workshop Participants
Arne Astrup, MD, DMSc, Co-Chair Professor, Head of Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports,
University of Copenhagen;
Chief Consultant, Unit for Clinical Research,
Bispebjerg Frederiksberg Hospitals,
Copenhagen, Denmark
Ronald M. Krauss, MD, Co-Chair Professor, Pediatrics and Medicine, University of California, San Francisco; Dolores Jordan Endowed Chair, University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland; Adjunct Professor, Nutritional Sciences, University of California, Berkeley
Dennis M. Bier, MD Professor, Pediatrics
Director, Children’s Nutrition Research Center,
Baylor College of Medicine
Andrew Mente, MSc, PhD Associate Professor,
Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University & Hamilton Health Sciences
Ontario, Canada
J. Thomas Brenna, PhD
Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, of Chemistry, and of Nutrition
University of Texas at Austin;
Professor Emeritus, Cornell University
Jose M Ordovas, PhD
Director, Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory, JM-USDA-HNRCA,
Professor, Nutrition and Genetics,
Tufts University
Marcia C. de Oliveira Otto, M.S. PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and
Environmental Sciences,
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Jeff Volek, PhD, RD
Professor, Department of Human Sciences,
The Ohio State University
James O. Hill, PhD
Professor and Chair,
Department of Nutrition Sciences,
Director, Nutrition Obesity Research Center,
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Salim Yusuf, DPhil, FRCPC, FRSC, O.C.
Professor of Medicine
McMaster University; Executive Director, Population Health Research Institute
McMaster University & Hamilton Health Sciences
Ontario, Canada
Janet King, PhD
Professor, Graduate School, Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology,
University of California at Berkeley