Substituting polyunsaturated fat for saturated fat: A health impact assessment of a fat tax in seven European countries.

ABSTRACT: There is evidence that replacing saturated fat (SFA) with polyunsaturated fat (PUFA) lowers ischemic heart disease (IHD). In order to improve the population's diet, the World Health Organization has called for the taxation of foods that are high in SFA. We aimed to assess the potential health gains of a European fat tax by applying the SFA intake reduction that has been observed under the Danish fat tax to six other European countries. For each country, we created a fat tax scenario with a decreased SFA intake and a corresponding increase in PUFA. We compared this fat tax scenario to a reference scenario with no change in SFA intake, and to a guideline scenario with a population-wide SFA intake in line with dietary recommendations. We used DYNAMO-HIA to dynamically project the policy-attri

SUBMITTER: Schonbach JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6619676 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature