Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what current guidance they have issued about the maximum recommended dietary intake of (1) saturated, and (2) unsaturated, fat per day; and on the basis of what scientific evidence they made such a recommendation.

Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government encourages everyone to have a healthy balanced diet in line with the United Kingdom’s healthy eating model, The Eatwell Guide, which shows that foods high in saturated fat, salt, or sugar should be eaten less often, or in small amounts. The Government’s dietary guidelines are based on recommendations from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) and its predecessor, the Committee on Medical Aspects of Nutrition Policy (COMA), and based on comprehensive assessments of the evidence.

In its 1994 report, Nutritional aspects of cardiovascular disease, the COMA recommended a reduction in the average contribution of total fat to dietary energy in the population to approximately 35%, and that trans fats should provide no more than approximately 2% of dietary energy. In relation to unsaturated fatty acids, the COMA concluded that: monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) had no specific recommendation; for n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), there should be no further increase in average intakes, and the proportion of the population consuming in excess of about 10% energy should not increase; linolenic acid provided at least 1% of total energy; and alpha linolenic acid provided at least 0.2% total energy. The report also included recommendations on saturated fats, which were updated by the SACN in 2019.

A joint SACN and Committee on Toxicity report, Advice on fish consumption: benefits and risks published in 2004, endorsed the recommendation that the population, including pregnant women, should eat at least two portions of fish per week, one of which should be oily. Two portions of fish per week, one white and one oily, contains approximately 0.45 grams per day of long chain n-3 PUFA. This recommendation represented an increase in the population’s average consumption of long chain n-3 PUFA, from approximately 0.2 grams to approximately 0.45 grams per day.

The SACN’s 2019 report on saturated fats and health recommended: the dietary reference value for saturated fats remains unchanged, and the population’s average contribution of saturated fatty acids to total dietary energy be reduced to no more than approximately 10%, which also applies to adults and children aged five years and older; and that saturated fats are substituted with unsaturated fats, as it was noted that more evidence is available supporting substitution with PUFA than substitution with MUFA.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total cost of treating patients who are obese and overweight; and what are the associated costs of treating (1) type 2 diabetes, (2) cardiovascular disease, (3) cerebrovascular disease, (4) musculoskeletal diseases including joint replacers, (5) cancer, and (6) dementia.

Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)

The department has reviewed and uses cost estimates published by Frontier Economics in 2022.

A study by Frontier Economics estimated that in 2021 obesity related ill-health cost the National Health Service £6.5 billion annually. This estimate includes costs associated with the following obesity related diseases: colorectal cancer; oesophageal cancer; kidney cancer; ovarian cancer; pancreatic cancer; coronary heart disease; stroke; type 2 diabetes; hypertension; knee osteoarthritis; endometrial cancer, and breast cancer.

The disease costs associated with obesity are calculated from the total annual costs per case, as shown in the following table:

The annual costs per case includes direct health-care costs including hospital care (both inpatient and outpatient), primary care, and medication, and they are not exclusively related to obesity associated cases. Indirect and social care costs are not included, which means the exclusion of these costs will probably underestimate total costs of disease events overall.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the written answer by Lord Markham of 17 May (HL4521), whether the recommended limit of 30g a day of fat contained in the Eatwell Guide is also based on the Committee on Medical Aspects of Nutrition Policy (COMA) 1994 report, and if so whether the guidance should be updated in the light of further, more up-to-date research.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government’s dietary recommendations are based on robust assessments of the scientific evidence by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) and its predecessor, the Committee on Medical Aspects of Nutrition Policy (COMA). The Government’s advice on a healthy, balanced diet is encapsulated in the United Kingdom’s national food model, the Eatwell Guide.

The current Government dietary recommendation is that the total fat intake of the population should not exceed 35% of total energy from food. This would equate to a total fat intake of no more than 78 grams a day for women and 97 grams a day for men, based on a total daily calorie intake of 2000 kilocalories a day for women and 2500 kilocalories a day for men aged 19 to 64 years old.

This recommendation is based on evidence outlined by the COMA in its 1991 report, Dietary Reference Values for Food Energy and Nutrients for the United Kingdom, a copy of which has been placed in the House of Lords Library, due to the document size. This is further supported by recommendations made to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease in the COMA’s 1994 report, Nutritional Aspects of Cardiovascular Disease, a copy of has also been placed in the House of Lords Library, due to the size of the document.

Recommendations on saturated fat were updated in SACN’s 2019 report, Saturated fats and health, a copy of which is attached, which recommended that the dietary reference value for saturated fats remains unchanged, specifically that the populations average contribution of saturated fatty acids to total dietary energy be reduced to no more than about 10%. This recommendation applies to adults and children aged five years old and older. The report also recommended that saturated fats are substituted with unsaturated fats. It was noted that more evidence is available supporting substitution with polyunsaturated fats than substitution with monounsaturated fats.

It was noted that ‘this recommendation is made in the context of existing UK Government recommendations for macronutrients and energy’. The Eatwell Guide recommends that the average man should have no more than 30 grams of saturated fat a day and the average woman should have no more than 20 grams of saturated fat a day.

At its horizon scan meeting in June 2022, the SACN considered a paper on a potential approach to any future work on other fatty acids. The SACN agreed that omega-3 fatty acids were an area of high priority, particularly because of the recent evidence questioning the potential benefits of fish oils for some outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease. Members agreed to keep a review of omega-3 fatty acids as a high priority on the watching brief.

The SACN considered this again at its horizon scan meeting on 9 October 2024 and agreed to add omega-3 fatty acids to the SACN’s work programme when capacity allows. The meeting papers for the horizon scan meetings are available on the SACN webpage, in an online only format.

Found: The Earl of Caithness; Lord Colgrain; Baroness Goudie; Baroness Jenkin of Kennington; Lord Krebs; Lord