Assessing the impact of replacing foods high in saturated fats with foods high in unsaturated fats on dietary fat intake among Canadians

Abstract

Background: The 2019 Canada's Food Guide (CFG) recommends that foods containing mostly unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) should replace foods that contain mostly SFA to reduce SFA intakes.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to model the theoretical changes in intake of SFA at the population level if all Canadians adhered to that recommendation.

Methods: Dietary intakes from 24-h recalls in the nationally representative 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey-Nutrition were used for these analyses. Foods identified as high in SFA based on Health Canada's criteria [≥2 g SFA per reference amount and/or ≥15% of energy (%E) of the food's content as SFA] were replaced by an equal amount (gram per gram) of substitution foods that were lower in SFA and had a higher UFA to SFA ratio. Distributions of SFA and other nutrients before and after substitutions were estimated using the National Cancer Institute (NCI) method based on dietary intakes data from a 24-h recall repeated in 37% of the population.

Results: The mean (95% CI) dietary SFA intake among Canadians 2 y or older would be theoretically reduced from 10.8%E (10.7, 11.0%E) to 5.8%E (5.7, 5.9%E) if all high-SFA foods consumed were replaced by the corresponding low-SFA/high-UFA foods. Modeled usual intake of SFA after substitution was <10%E in 100% of Canadians, irrespective of sex and age. Almost half (44%) of the modeled reduction in SFA intake was attributed to replacement of SFA-rich foods not recommended in the 2019 CFG.

Conclusions: This food-based substitution modeling analysis suggests that consumption of SFA would be below 10%E in Canada if all Canadians adhered to the 2019 CFG recommendation that foods containing mostly UFA should replace foods that contain mostly SFA.

Keywords: 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS)–Nutrition; Canada's Food Guide (CFG); dietary guidelines; saturated fats; substitution; unsaturated fats.

FIGURE 1

Mean usual SFA, MUFA, and PUFA intakes as %E among Canadians aged 2 y and older, before and after the modeled substitution of high-SFA foods with the corresponding low-SFA/high-UFA foods. Scenarios considered were substitution of 1) all high-SFA foods, 2) high-SFA grain foods only, 3) high-SFA dairy foods only, 4) high-SFA protein foods only (animal- and plant-based protein foods), and 5) high-SFA foods in the “other foods” category. Values are means (95% CIs). Usual intakes were obtained using the bivariate NCI method for SFA and with the population ratio method for MUFAs and PUFAs as detailed in the Methods. Data are from the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey–Nutrition [n (unweighted) = 20 103] and are representative of all Canadians aged 2 y and older (8). NCI, National Cancer Institute; UFA, unsaturated fatty acid; %E, percentage of total energy intake.

FIGURE 2

Proportion of the Canadian population (aged 2 y and more) with usual total SFA intakes <10%E before and after the substitution of foods high in SFA with the corresponding foods that are low in SFA/high in UFA. Scenarios considered were substitution of 1) all high-SFA foods, 2) high-SFA grain foods only, 3) high-SFA dairy foods only, 4) high-SFA protein foods only (animal- and plant-based protein foods), and 5) high-SFA foods in the “other foods” category. Data are from the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey–Nutrition [n (unweighted) = 20 103] and are representative of usual SFA intake among all Canadians aged 2 y and older 8), as estimated using the National Cancer Institute's bivariate method (see Methods). UFA, unsaturated fatty acid; %E, percentage of total energy intake.