A Scoping Review of Current Guidelines on Dietary Fat and Fat Quality
Abstract
Introduction: We conducted a scoping review of dietary guidelines with the intent of developing a position paper by the “IUNS Task force on Dietary Fat Quality” tasked to summarize the available evidence and provide the basis for dietary recommendations. Methods: We systematically searched several databases and Web sites for relevant documents published between 2015 and 2019. Results: Twenty documents were included. Quantitative range intake recommendations for daily total fat intake included boundaries from 20 to 35% of total energy intake (TEI), for monounsaturated fat (MUFA) 10–25%, for polyunsaturated fat (PUFA) 6–11%, for saturated-fat (SFA) ≤11–≤7%, for industrial trans-fat (TFA) ≤2–0%, and <300–<200 mg/d for dietary cholesterol. The methodological approaches to grade the strength of recommendations were heterogeneous, and varied highly between the included guidelines. Only the World Health Organization applied the GRADE approach and graded the following recommendation as “strong”: to reduce SFA to below 10%, and TFA to below 1% and replace both with PUFA if SFA intake is greater than 10% of TEI. Conclusion: Although the methodological approaches of the dietary guidelines were heterogeneous, most of them recommend total fat intakes of 30–≤35% of TEI, replacement of SFA with PUFA and MUFA, and avoidance of industrial TFA.
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Coconut oil's saturated fat content has led to its classification alongside palm oil, butter, and other animal fats, which nutritional guidelines generally recommend limiting.
“CO’s SFA content has led to its classification alongside palm oil, butter, and other animal fats, which nutritional guidelines generally recommend limiting [19, 65].”
From Nutritional composition and bioactive properties of tropical coconut palm fruit with functional food applications (2025) · cites this paper as [65]
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Foreword to Special IUNS Task Forces supplement in Trends in Food Science & Technology – DRAFT 2
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- Authors
- Schwingshackl, L., Zähringer, J., Beyerbach, J., Werner, S. S., Nagavci, B., Heseker, H., Koletzko, B., Meerpohl, J. J., & on behalf of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) Task force on Dietary Fat Quality
- Affiliations
- University of Freiburg (DE)
- Paderborn University (DE)
- LMU Klinikum (DE)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism
- Publisher
- S. Karger AG
- Published
- 2021
- Volume
- 77
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 65-82
- ISSN
- 0250-6807 (ISSN-L)
- 1421-9697
- OpenAlex
- W3169570510
- Cited by
- 53
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 1.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Fatty Acid Research and Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutritional Studies and Diet
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Nutrition, Health, and Society Studies
- Keywords
- dietary fat, fat quality, dietary guidelines, saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, monounsaturated fatty acids, industrial trans fats, dietary cholesterol, total fat intake, energy intake, dietary recommendations, strength of recommendation, GRADE
- MeSH terms
- Energy Intake, Diet, Dietary Fats, Fatty Acids, Humans, Guidelines as Topic
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