Negende Unilever Nutrition Symposium Unilever R&D Vlaardingen

Nutrition experts ‘Adequate intake essential fats should start early in life’

These leading experts discussed the importance of a healthy diet and lifestyle, which should start early in life to have the biggest impact on health. Sufficiently high intakes of essential fats, from vegetable oils and products made from these are a key element in a healthy diet. Unilever has a long history in the field of nutrition and essential fats, provided by products such as Flora / Becel, Blue Band / Rama and Hellmann’s / Calvé / Amora.

“Important themes discussed during the symposium were: The roles of essential fats in the human body, population intakes of essential fats compared to dietary recommendations, and latest evidence on the impact of essential fats on health. Also the opportunities for joint efforts by industry, academia, governmental and non-governmental organisations to effectively improve health behaviour with regard to a desirable, sustained intake of essential fatty acids were identified” says Dr Gert Meijer, Vice President Unilever Nutrition and host of the symposium. “Overall, the experts agreed that ensuring a good intake of essential fats should start early in life, even before birth”.

Professor Ricardo Uauy, former President of the International Union of Nutrition Sciences, provided insights on the new interim FAO/WHO recommendations and concluded with a call to focus on the quality, instead of just the total quantity, of fat in children’s diets, just as is done for adults: ”After age 2, the recommendations with respect to type of dietary fat should be aimed at reducing the risk of future nutrition-related chronic diseases, this means reducing cholesterol raising saturated fatty acids and replacing them with essential omega-6 and -3  polyunsaturated fatty acids”

Many children worldwide are not meeting the optimal intake recommendations of essential fats needed for future health. Dr Saskia Osendarp, lead scientist at Unilever, highlighted the gap between recommended and actual dietary fatty acids intake of both children and adolescents. “Intake of essential fats is lower, in some countries even 40% lower, and that of blood cholesterol-raising saturated fats is higher, in some countries 60% higher, than the goals for optimal nutrients as recommended by the WHO. This is worrying, as evidence from longitudinal cohort studies indicates that children with high total cholesterol levels have a greater likelihood of having elevated adult levels, thereby increasing risk of atherosclerosis and subsequent CVD in adulthood”.

Other speakers indicated that small increases in intakes of essential fats, such as substituting butter with soft margarine, can have a positive impact on future health of children and adults. Together with a healthy diet throughout life, these fatty acids appear to be important to maintain cognitive function, the immune system and cardiovascular health. For general health and cardiovascular health in particular, while ensuring appropriate energy intake, it is better to focus on improving the quality of fat in the diet rather than reducing the total amount of fat in the diet.

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Unilever works to create a better future every day. We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others.

We are one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with strong local roots in more than 100 countries.  Our portfolio includes some of the world’s best known and most loved brands including eleven €1 billion brands, and global leadership in many categories in which we operate. The portfolio features iconic brands such as: Knorr, Lipton, Becel / Flora, Blue Band / Rama / Country Crock, Wall’s / OLA / Langnese, Hellmann’s, Calvé, Unox, Dove, Pond’s, Lux, Axe / Lynx, Sunsilk, Vaseline, Rexona / Sure, Omo, Surf, Cif, and Glorix / Domestos.

We have around 163,000 employees in approaching 100 countries, and generated annual sales of €40 billion in 2009.  For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit www.unilever.com.