WHO updates guidelines on fats and carbohydrates

With its guidance on dietary fat, WHO notes that both quantity and quality are important for good health. WHO reaffirms that adults should limit total fat intake to 30% of total energy intake or less.  Fat consumed by everyone 2 years of age and older should be primarily unsaturated fatty acids, with no more than 10% of total energy intake coming from saturated fatty acids and no more than 1% of total energy intake from trans-fatty acids from both industrially produced and ruminant animal sources.

Saturated and trans-fatty acids in the diet can be replaced with other nutrients such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids from plant sources, or carbohydrates from foods containing naturally occurring dietary fibre, such as whole grains, vegetables, fruits and pulses.

Saturated fatty acids can be found in fatty meat, dairy foods, and hard fats and oils such as butter, ghee, lard, palm oil and coconut oil and trans-fatty acids in baked and fried foods, pre-packaged snacks, and meat and dairy foods from ruminant animals, such as cows or sheep.

Together with WHO’s existing guidance to limit free sugars intake, the new guidance on carbohydrate intake highlights the importance of carbohydrate quality for good health. WHO provides a new recommendation that carbohydrate intake for everyone 2 years of age and older should come primarily from whole grains, vegetables, fruits and pulses. WHO recommends that adults consume at least 400 grams of vegetables and fruits and 25 grams of naturally occurring dietary fibre per day. In first time guidance for children and adolescents WHO suggests the following intakes of vegetables and fruits:

• 2–5 years old, at least 250 g per day
• 6–9 years old, at least 350 g per day
• 10 years or older, at least 400 g per day

And the following intakes of naturally occurring dietary fibre:

• 2–5 years old, at least 15 g per day
• 6–9 years old, at least 21 g per day
• 10 years or older, at least 25 g per day.

These new guidelines, together with existing WHO guidelines on free sugars, non-sugar sweeteners and sodium, as well as forthcoming guidelines on polyunsaturated fatty acids and low-sodium salt substitutes, underpin the concept of healthy diets.

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1. Saturated fatty acid and trans-fatty acid intake for adults and children: WHO guideline
2. Total fat intake for the prevention of unhealthy weight gain in adults and children: WHO guideline
3. Carbohydrate intake for adults and children: WHO guideline