Global, regional, and national consumption levels of dietary fats and oils in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis including 266 country-specific nutrition surveys.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Systematic review and Bayesian hierarchical modeling of cross-sectional dietary surveys
PubMed 24736206 · doi:10.1136/bmj.g2272
What was done
Researchers compiled data from 266 dietary surveys covering 1,630,069 adult individuals across 113 of 187 countries to assess global intake of saturated fat, omega-6 fat, seafood omega-3, plant omega-3, trans fat, and dietary cholesterol in 1990 and 2010. A multilevel hierarchical Bayesian model was used to estimate mean consumption by country, age, and sex while adjusting for missing data, survey representativeness, and measurement differences.
What was found
In 2010, global mean saturated fat consumption was 9.4% of total energy (%E) with country-specific means ranging from 2.3 to 27.5%E, and 61.8% of the global adult population lived in countries with mean intake under 10%E. Global mean omega-6 consumption was 5.9%E (range 1.2 to 12.5%E; 52.4% of population in countries with mean at least 5%E), trans fat mean was 1.4%E (range 0.2 to 6.5%E; 0.6% in countries meeting optimal intake of 0.5%E or less), dietary cholesterol mean was 228 mg/day (range 97 to 440 mg/day; 87.6% meeting under 300 mg/day), seafood omega-3 mean was 163 mg/day (range 5 to 3,886 mg/day; 18.9% meeting at least 250 mg/day), and plant omega-3 mean was 1,371 mg/day (range under 100 to 5,542 mg/day; 43.9% meeting at least 1,100 mg/day). Trans fat intake was higher in younger adults, while cholesterol and seafood omega-3 were higher in older adults. From 1990 to 2010, global saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol remained stable, whereas omega-6, seafood omega-3, and plant omega-3 intakes increased.
Why it matters
This study provides systematic global and national benchmarks for dietary fat intake, demonstrating that most of the world population falls short of recommended targets for seafood omega-3 and trans fat restriction.
Limits
Data were directly available for only 113 of 187 countries, requiring model-based imputation for missing regions. Dietary assessment methods varied substantially across surveys, relying on self-report subject to recall bias, and the ecological design cannot evaluate individual-level cardiovascular outcomes.
Cited by
- supports Globally, about 80% of the population does not get enough omega-3 from their diet.