CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT DIETARY-FAT RESTRICTIONS FOR CHILDREN

Expert panels recommend reduction of dietary fat and cholesterol, beca use excessive fat intake may lead to known health hazards. However, th ere are no data demonstrating beneficial effects of such diets startin g in childhood for all children, including those with normal serum cho lesterol levels. Dietary restrictions in early life may not necessaril y induce a long-lasting decrease in blood cholesterol levels in childr en persisting into adulthood or reduce disease incidence. On the other hand, the result of such diets may be suboptimal growth and developme nt. Furthermore, low fat diets may lower high density lipoprotein chol esterol levels and not specifically low density lipoprotein cholestero l. In addition, low serum cholesterol levels may be associated with in creased mortality, including deaths due to accidents, which is most im portant in children. Recently, increased attention has been drawn to t he association between short stature and/or nutritional status and def iciencies in intrauterine and early life with coronary artery disease in adulthood. Also, the problems of associated psychological consequen ces, family conflicts and cost should not be ignored while implementin g a low fat diet. In this review, we discuss the controversies on diet ary fat restrictions for children.