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By Hatty Willmoth
Food & Nutrition Reporter
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It's not just cheese and soda that are contributing to Americans eating too much saturated fat and sugar. Foods such as chicken and ketchup may also be to blame for pushing people beyond recommended intakes.
That's according to a new study by Ohio State University (OSU) that listed the most common sources of saturated fat and sugar in American diets—food components that may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and cancer.
"There are the foods that are higher in saturated fat and added sugar that are consumed frequently, and they get targeted [by dietary advice and interventions], but there's also that smaller cumulative effect of things that are generally perceived as healthy, but they're all contributing just a little bit," said first author Christopher Taylor, nutrition professor at OSU, in a statement.
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"Chicken breast is promoted as a lower saturated fat food, but it still has a little bit of saturated fat. But it is helpful to know how foods with smaller amounts also slowly add saturated fat in a stealthy way into the diet."
The study, published in Nutrients last week, analyzed data from over 36,000 U.S. adults who had participated in a nutrition survey from 2005-2018. Information they had given about their food consumption was weighted to be more nationally representative of U.S. adults, and then analyzed to discover the main dietary sources of saturated fat and added sugar.
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Cheese, pizza, ice cream and eggs were found to be the biggest sources of saturated fat in the subjects' diets. But other sources included cold cut meats, cream substitutes, fried potatoes and whole milk.
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Meanwhile, soft drinks, tea, fruit drinks, cakes and pies were the primary sources of added sugar, but sugar also came from tomato-based condiments, cereal bars, energy drinks and breads.
"[Sugar is] everywhere," said lead author and oncology professor, Susan Schembre, in a statement. "It's in so many unexpected foods, and often in surprising amounts."
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Current national dietary guidelines in the U.S. recommend that less than 10 percent of dietary calories should come from saturated fat and added sugar, but the study found that saturated fat made up at least 12 percent of participants' calories, and added sugar 14 to 16 percent.
"Dietary fats are essential to a healthy diet. Avoiding foods with saturated fat is impractical and unnecessary, and could inadvertently lead to deficiencies in other important nutrients," Schembre told Newsweek.
"A better strategy is to pay attention to the sources and amount of saturated fat in your diet, then modify your diet to achieve the recommendations. The same goes for added sugars."
"Fats and sugars contribute to the flavor and taste profile of foods and beverages," Taylor told Newsweek.
"It does not mean that we can never eat foods that may contain saturated fat or added sugars, but the power is in understanding where these are coming from and how we can make choices to limit our intakes to reduce potential health risks."
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Reference
Taylor, C. A., Madril, P., Weiss, R., Thomson, C. A., Dunton, G. F., Jospe, M. R., Richardson, K. M., Bedrick, E. J., & Schembre, S. M. (2024). Identifying the Leading Sources of Saturated Fat and Added Sugar in U.S. Adults. Nutrients, 16(15), Article 15. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16152474
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