Dietary fat intake and early mortality patterns – data from The Malmö Diet and Cancer Study

Abstract

Dietary fat intake and early mortality patterns 2013 data from The Malmö Diet and Cancer Study. J Intern Med 2005; 258: 1532013165.Objectives. Most current dietary guidelines encourage limiting relative fat intake to \textless30% of total daily energy, with saturated and trans fatty acids contributing no more than 10%. We examined whether total fat intake, saturated fat, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated fat intake are independent risk factors for prospective all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality.Design. Population-based, prospective cohort study.Setting and subjects. The Malmö Diet and Cancer Study was set in the city of Malmö, southern Sweden. A total of 28 098 middle-aged individuals participated in the study 199120131996.Main outcome measures. Subjects were categorized by quartiles of relative fat intake, with the first quartile used as a reference point in estimating multivariate relative risks (RR; 95% CI, Cox’s regression model). Adjustments were made for confounding by age and various lifestyle factors.Results. Women in the fourth quartile of total fat intake had a significantly higher RR of cancer mortality (RR 1.46; CI 1.0420132.04). A significant downwards trend was observed for cardiovascular mortality amongst men from the first to the fourth quartile (P = 0.028). No deteriorating effects of high saturated fat intake were observed for either sex for any cause of death. Beneficial effects of a relatively high intake of unsaturated fats were not uniform.Conclusions. With the exception of cancer mortality for women, individuals receiving more than 30 of their total daily energy from fat and more than 10% from saturated fat, did not have increased mortality. Current dietary guidelines concerning fat intake are thus generally not supported by our observational results.