JAMA Viewpoint Draws Attention to Fat Intake Recommendations by DGAC

As Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health and a member of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC), outlined in his presentation during Patient-Centered Diabetes Care 2015, held in Boston, the DGAC recommends that the limit on calories from fat to 30% total calories can be lifted and cholesterol should be removed from the list of “nutrients of concern.”

Now, an opinion piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association the US Department of Agriculture and HHS heed these recommendations when developing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which, say the authors have a "far-reaching influence across the food supply," from schools to restaurant recipes to the military. The authors draw particular attention to the fact that the committee has eliminated an upper limit on total dietary fat intake, recommending instead that dietary fat should be optimized and well-balanced.