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  3. Global, regional, and national consumption levels of dietary fats and oils in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis including 266 country-specific nutrition surveys
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Research

Global, regional, and national consumption levels of dietary fats and oils in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis including 266 country-specific nutrition surveys

BMJ 2014; 348 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g2272 (Published 15 April 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;348:g2272

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  1. Renata Micha, research director, research associate12,
  2. Shahab Khatibzadeh, research fellow1,
  3. Peilin Shi, statistician1,
  4. Saman Fahimi, research fellow1,
  5. Stephen Lim, associate professor3,
  6. Kathryn G Andrews, post-bachelor fellow3,
  7. Rebecca E Engell, post-bachelor fellow3,
  8. John Powles, honorary senior visiting fellow4,
  9. Majid Ezzati, professor5,
  10. Dariush Mozaffarian, associate professor167
  11. on behalf of the Global Burden of Diseases Nutrition and Chronic Diseases Expert Group (NutriCoDE).
  1. 1Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
  2. 2Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece
  3. 3Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, Seattle, WA, USA
  4. 4Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Cambridge Institute of Public Health, Cambridge, UK
  5. 5Department of Global Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
  6. 6Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston
  7. 7Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
  1. Correspondence to: D Mozaffarian dmozaffa{at}hsph.harvard.edu, R Micha rmicha{at}hsph.harvard.edu
  • Accepted 11 March 2014

Abstract

Objectives To quantify global consumption of key dietary fats and oils by country, age, and sex in 1990 and 2010.

Design Data were identified, obtained, and assessed among adults in 16 age- and sex-specific groups from dietary surveys worldwide on saturated, omega 6, seafood omega 3, plant omega 3, and trans fats, and dietary cholesterol. We included 266 surveys in adults (83% nationally representative) comprising 1 630 069 unique individuals, representing 113 of 187 countries and 82% of the global population. A multilevel hierarchical Bayesian model accounted for differences in national and regional levels of missing data, measurement incomparability, study representativeness, and sampling and modelling uncertainty.

Setting and population Global adult population, by age, sex, country, and time.

Results In 2010, global saturated fat consumption was 9.4%E (95%UI=9.2 to 9.5); country-specific intakes varied dramatically from 2.3 to 27.5%E; in 75 of 187 countries representing 61.8% of the world’s adult population, the mean intake was <10%E. Country-specific omega 6 consumption ranged from 1.2 to 12.5%E (global mean=5.9%E); corresponding range was 0.2 to 6.5%E (1.4%E) for trans fat; 97 to 440 mg/day (228 mg/day) for dietary cholesterol; 5 to 3,886 mg/day (163 mg/day) for seafood omega 3; and <100 to 5,542 mg/day (1,371 mg/day) for plant omega 3. Countries representing 52.4% of the global population had national mean intakes for omega 6 fat ≥5%E; corresponding proportions meeting optimal intakes were 0.6% for trans fat (≤0.5%E); 87.6% for dietary cholesterol (<300 mg/day); 18.9% for seafood omega 3 fat (≥250 mg/day); and 43.9% for plant omega 3 fat (≥1,100 mg/day). Trans fat intakes were generally higher at younger ages; and dietary cholesterol and seafood omega 3 fats generally higher at older ages. Intakes were similar by sex. Between 1990 and 2010, global saturated fat, dietary cholesterol, and trans fat intakes remained stable, while omega 6, seafood omega 3, and plant omega 3 fat intakes each increased.

Conclusions These novel global data on dietary fats and oils identify dramatic diversity across nations and inform policies and priorities for improving global health.

Footnotes

  • Global Burden of Diseases Nutrition and Chronic Diseases Expert Group (NutriCoDE). Core group: Dariush Mozaffarian, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Majid Ezzati, Imperial College London, London, UK; Saman Fahimi, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Shahab Khatibzadeh, Harvard School of Public Health; Renata Micha, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece, Harvard School of Public Health; John Powles, University of Cambridge; Peilin Shi, Harvard School of Public Health.

  • Cancer relative risks: Tim E Byers, University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA; Edward Giovannucci, Harvard School of Public Health; Stephanie Smith-Warner, Harvard School of Public Health.

  • Other members: Ibrahim Elmadfa, Institute of Nutritional Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Mayuree Rao, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, USA; Pattra Wirojratana, Harvard School of Public Health.

  • Dietary exposure imputation: Stephen S Lim, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA; Kathryn G Andrews, African Leaders Malaria Alliance, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Rebecca E Engell, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington.

  • Dietary exposures—corresponding members: Pamela A Abbott, University of Aberdeen, UK; Morteza Abdollahi, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute, Iran; Enrique O Abeyá Gilardon, Ministerio de Salud, Argentina; Habibul Ahsan, University of Chicago, USA; Mohannad Abed Alfattah Al Nsour, Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET), Jordan; Suad N Al-Hooti, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait; Carukshi Arambepola, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; Hubert Barennes, Institut Francophone pour la Médecine Tropicale, Lao PDR; Simon Barquera, Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica (INSP), Mexico; Ana Baylin, University of Michigan, US; Wulf Becker, National Food Agency, Sweden; Peter Bjerregaard, National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark; Lesley T Bourne, Environment and Health Research Unit, Medical Research Council, South Africa; Neville Calleja, Department of Health Information & Research, Malta; Mario V Capanzana, Food and Nutrition Research Institute, Philippines; Katia Castetbon, Institut de veille sanitaire, France; Hsing-Yi Chang, National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan; Yu Chen, New York University School of Medicine, USA; Melanie J Cowan, WHO, Switzerland; Stefaan De Henauw, Ghent University, Department of Public Health, Belgium; Eric L Ding, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, USA; Charmaine A Duante, Food and Nutrition Research Institute-Department of Science and Technology, Philippines; Pablo Duran, Dirección Nacional de Maternidad e Infancia, Ministerio de Salud de la Nación, Argentina; Ibrahim Elmadfa, Institute of Nutritional Sciences, University of Vienna, Austria; Heléne Enghardt Barbieri; Farshad Farzadfar, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran; Dulitha N Fernando, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; Aida Filipovic Hadziomeragic, Institute of Public Health of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Regina M Fisberg, Faculty of Public Health - University of São Paulo, Brazil; Simon Forsyth; Didier Garriguet, Statistics Canada, Canada; Jean-Michel Gaspoz, Geneva University Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine of Geneva, Switzerland; Dorothy Gauci, Department of Health Information and Research, Malta; Brahmam N V Ginnela, National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research, India; Idris Guessous, Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland; Martin C Gulliford, King’s College London, UK; Wilbur Hadden; Christian Haerpfer, University of Aberdeen, UK; Daniel J Hoffman, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, USA; Anahita Houshiar-Rad, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences Tehran, Iran, IRIran; Inge Huybrechts, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France; Nahla C Hwalla, American University of Beirut, Lebanon; Hajah Masni Ibrahim, Ministry of Health, Brunei; Manami Inoue, Epidemiology and Prevention Division, Research Center for Cancer Prevention and Screening, National Cancer Center, Japan; Maria D Jackson, University of the West Indies, Jamaica; Lars Johansson, Norwegian Directorate of Health, Norway; Lital Keinan-Boker, Ministry of Health, Israel; Cho-il Kim, Korea Health Industry Development Institute, Republic of Korea; Eda Koksal, Gazi University, Turkey; Hae-Jeung Lee; Yanping Li, Harvard School of Public Health, USA; Nur Indrawaty Lipoeto, Andalas University, Indonesia; Guansheng Ma, National Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China; Guadalupe L. Mangialavori, Ministerio de Salud de la Nación (National Health Ministry), Argentina; Yasuhiro Matsumura, Bunkyo University, Japan; Stephen T McGarvey, Brown University, USA; Chan Mei Fen; Gert BM Mensink, Robert Koch Institute, Germany; Rafael A Monge-Rojas, Costa Rican Institute for Research and Education and Nutrition and Health (INCIENSA), Costa Rica; Abdulrahman Obaid. Musaiger, Arab Center for Nutrition, Bahrain; Balakrishna Nagalla, National Institute of Nuyrition, Hyderabad India; Androniki Naska, Dept. of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, University of Athens Medical School, Greece; Marga C Ocke, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Netherlands; Maciej Oltarzewski, National Food and Nutrition Institute, Poland; Philippos Orfanos, Dept of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, University of Athens Medical School, Greece; Marja-Leena Ovaskainen, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland; Wen-Harn Pan, Division of Preventive Medicine and Health Services Research, Institute of Population Health Sciences, National Health Reserch Institutes, Taiwan; Demosthenes B Panagiotakos, Harokopio University, Greece; Gulden Ayla Pekcan, Hacettepe University Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Turkey; Stefka Petrova, National Center of Public Health and Analyses, Bulgaria; Noppawan Piaseu, Mahidol University, Thailand; Christos Pitsavos, Athens University Medical School, Greece; Luz Gladys Posada, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia; Leanne M Riley, WHO, Switzerland; Luz Maria Sánchez-Romero, National Institute of Public Health, Mexico; Rusidah BT Selamat, Nutrition Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Putrajaya, Malaysia; Sangita Sharma; Abla Mehio. Sibai, American University of Beirut- Faculty of Health Sciences, Lebanon; Rosely Sichieri, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Chansimaly Simmala, Institut of Tropical Medecin, Laos; Laufey Steingrimsdottir, Iceland; Gillian Swan; Elżbieta Halina. Sygnowska, National Institute of Cardiology, Poland; Lucjan Szponar, National Food and Nutrition Institute, Poland; Heli Tapanainen, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland; Robert Templeton; Anastasia Thanopoulou, Diabetes Center, 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, National University of Athens, Hippokration General Hospital, Greece; Holmfridur Thorgeirsdóttir, Directorate of Health, Iceland; Inga Thorsdottir; Antonia Trichopoulou, Hellenic Health Foundation, Greece; Shoichiro Tsugane, National Cancer Center, Japan; Aida Turrini, National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition, Italy; Sirje Vaask, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia; Coline van Oosterhout, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Netherlands; J Lennert Veerman, University of Queensland, Australia; Nowak Verena; Anna Waskiewicz, Institute of Cardiology, Department of Cardiovascular Diseases Epidemiology, Prevention and Health Promotion, Poland; Sahar Zaghloul, National Nutrition Institute, Egypt; Gábor Zajkás, National Institute of Food and Nutrition Sciences, Hungary.

  • This work was undertaken as part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study. The results in this paper are prepared independently of the final estimates of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors study. We thank the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey Phase 2, funded by the USAID and NIH (R01-HD38700), Higher School of Economics and Pension Fund of Russia, and the University of North Carolina Population Center (5 R24 HD050924) (Source: “Russia Longitudinal Monitoring survey, RLMS-HSE», conducted by HSE and ZAO “Demoscope” together with Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Institute of Sociology RAS (RLMS-HSE sites: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/rlms, http://www.hse.ru/org/hse/rlms) for sharing the data with us. We thank Barbara Bowman, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA; Patricia Constante Jamie, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo, Sao Paolo, Brazil; Karen Lock, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK; and Joceline Pomerleau, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK for advising and guidance on initial search strategy. We thank Louise Dekker, Jenna Golan, Shadi Kalantarian, Liesbeth Smit, and Georgina Waweru Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA for data collection.

  • Contributors: All authors were responsible for study concept and design, interpretation of data, critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content, and approval of final manuscript for submission. RM and SK conducted the systematic searches and data collection. RM, SK, PS, SL, SF, KGA, REE, and JP performed the data analysis. RM drafted the manuscript. RM and DM are guarantors for the study.

  • The study guarantors affirm that the manuscript is an honest, accurate, and transparent account of the study being reported; that no important aspects of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned (and, if relevant, registered) have been explained.

  • Funding: The study was conducted as part of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 supported in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

  • The sponsor of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report. All authors had access to all data sources and have responsibility for the contents of the report and the decision to submit for publication. The authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this publication and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy, or views of WHO.

  • Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years DM reports ad hoc honoraria for scientific presentations from Bunge, Pollock Institute, and Quaker Oats; ad hoc consulting fees from Foodminds, Nutrition Impact, Amarin, Astra Zeneca, Winston & Strawn, and Life Sciences Research Organization; membership of Unilever North America Scientific Advisory Board; royalties for an online chapter on fish oil from UpToDate.

  • Data sharing: No additional data available.

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

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