Don’t touch the current dietary recommendations on saturated fat, said experts in the field of human nutrition research. The experts recently issued a consensus statement after convening to discuss the effects of different fatty acids on the risk of heart disease. They discussed how new studies are questioning the long-standing belief of "bad" saturated fat, and reviewed data on palmitic acid and stearic acid. They concluded that more research must be done before recommendations should be changed and preference is given to one kind of saturated fat over another.

At last year's Chicago IFT Loders Croklaan presented “Palm Oil in Foods – A Changing Paradigm for Saturated Fats.”  This presentation has shown how palm oil is the most versatile zero-trans edible oil available to the food industry today, and why it has a role to play as part of a healthy diet.

Fifteen years of nutrition research has revealed that saturated fats actually have little or no effect on risk of heart disease...