Saturated Fats - the Next Fsa Campaign

摘要

The Food Standards Agency is well advanced in its plans to launch an advertising campaign to advise consumers to reduce their intakes of saturated fats. The FSA is trying to tackle the issue of cardiovascular disease (CVD) which is the main cause of death in the UK. CVD encompasses diseases of the heart and circulatory system including stroke. In 2004, it was reported that CVD accounted for over 216 000 deaths in the UK or about 37% of all deaths; of these, the majority (105 000) were from heart disease and more than a quarter (60 000) from stroke. The concern over saturated fat is not new and in fact goes back to 1994 and the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy (COMA), which recommended that saturated fat intakes be reduced to no more than 11 % of food energy. This contrasts with the current estimates of 13.4% of food energy for men and 13.2% of food energy for women. Since COMA, the World Health Organisation has also emphasised the link between dietary fats and CVD, especially the effects of myristic and palmitic acids which are abundant in diets rich in dairy products and meat.