Dietary fat and the prevention of chronic disease.

Abstract

Chronic diseases are generally taken to include obesity (especially abdominal), diabetes, macrovascular disease (MVD), affecting all medium distributing arteries and the organs they supply, osteoporosis, and various cancers (notably breast, lung, colorectal, pancreatic, prostate and skin) and dementia. Unfortunately, they may not be so chronic, as their consequences for morbidity and mortality may occur early in adult life and proceed rapidly. Since they all, in one way or another, have food, nutritional and other environmental and lifestyle contributions, the term Eco-Nutritional disease may be preferred. Insofar as the nutritional basis of chronic disease is concerned, we may simply speak of nutritionally-related disorders or diseases (NRD). In regard to fat and END or NRD, the key considerations are how diverse the sources are and what it does to energy density (ED) and nutrient density (ND). These are reflected in the 2003 WHO report 9816 on "Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Disease".