Omega-9 Advantage • Healthier Profile • Dietary Guidelines

Delivering on Dietary Guidelines

With rising obesity rates throughout North America, the food industry has the opportunity to play a key role in public health by selecting healthier ingredients. The latest dietary guidelines from the USDA affirm that the type of fat consumed is as important than the amount of fat. Not only do the new recommendations call for a reduction in saturated fat intake, they encourage the consumption of good fats by replacing saturated fat with heart-healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. In addition, dietary guidelines from Health Canada encourage consumers to choose foods with unsaturated fat as part of a balanced diet. With their unique fatty acid profile that is high in heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, Omega-9 Oils help deliver on dietary guidelines throughout North America.

The health profiles of Omega-9 Oils allow foodservice operators and food manufacturers to help their consumers meet the new good fats recommendation from the latest dietary guidelines. Omega-9 Oils have the lowest saturated fat among zero trans fat oils and are uniquely high in monounsaturated (omega-9) fat. The Omega-9 Solutions Team has worked with the foodservice and food processing industry for years to remove more than 1 billion pounds of saturated and trans fats from the food supply. With the new federal dietary guidelines, the importance of including heart-healthy omega-9 fats in product and menu formulations has increased. According to the guidelines, even a 5% decrease in saturated fat, replaced by monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats, results in meaningful reduction in associated cardiovascular risks. In a population sampling study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers found the total trans fat in the blood serum of Americans was reduced by 58% over the period of 2000-2009¹. During the same time as this health shift, new legislation on nutrition labeling and bans on trans fats were implemented.

Using Omega-9 Oils also will help reduce solid fat intake, which is another recommendation in the guidelines. In the American diet, 19% of calories come from solid fats. The guidelines recommend a gradual reduction to a target of 5 to 15% of calories from solid fats and added sugars combined. Solid fats include coconut oil, palm kernel oil and hydrogenated oils due to their high saturated fat status. As a strategy to achieve this goal, the guidelines recommend replacing some current solid fat consumption with healthier oils, like Omega-9 Oils.

¹Hubert HW, Kuiper HC, Mirel LB, Johnson CL, Pirkle JL. Levels of Plasma trans-Fatty Acids in Non-Hispanic White Adults in the United States in 2000 and 2009. J Am Med Assoc. 2012; 307(6): 562-63.