{"id":1151,"date":"2017-09-18T15:50:40","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T14:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/the-forum\/?p=1151"},"modified":"2023-02-23T15:43:09","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T15:43:09","slug":"what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/","title":{"rendered":"What do we know about the fat in our food?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kate Green, Partnerships Manager,\u00a0Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
One of the farms managed by the University’s Centre for Dairy Research<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The shocking fact that 1 in 4 adults in the UK are obese is quite something. This figure has trebled in the last 30 years and is expected to increase to an astounding 1 in 2 by 2050. Do we, as a nation, know what we\u2019re eating when it comes to fat?<\/p>\n

This was the question posed by ITV\u2019s Tonight programme (Fat: The Healthy Option?)<\/a> which asked us to consider what we know about fat and to question the widely held belief that fat is a key opponent in our struggle against weight gain and the health risks that come with this. Professor Ian Givens kicked off the show by challenging the belief that dairy consumption makes you fat, as the evidence from innovative research undertaken by the University of Reading suggests that this is not in fact the case and that in some cases diary consumption can actually enhance weight loss.<\/p>\n

The University\u2019s novel research has identified that by adding rapeseed oil to cows\u2019 diets the proportion of unhealthy saturated fat in milk can be reduced, from 70% of total fat, to 50%. This could have a huge influence on saturated fat consumption, in the UK and beyond. As Professor Chris Reynolds <\/a>states, \u201cIf we can reduce the amount of saturated fatty acids that are in the milk that cows produce, then those saturated fatty acids never enter the food chain. So, globally we can have a major reduction in the amount of saturated fat that people are consuming worldwide\u201d.<\/p>\n

How to achieve this global impact was not something the ITV Tonight programme considered. But this is the issue that Profs Givens and Reynolds, and their colleagues at the University of Reading and partner organisations, continue to explore. Rapeseed and other oilseeds are currently expensive options for dairy producers, so the business viability of moving to this option is understandably questioned. Whilst a market is definitely there \u2013 Marks and Spencers have been selling reduced saturated fat milk since 2011 \u2013 it needs to grow in order to provide a secure return for the producers\u2019 additional investment. And the overall production of these alternative diary feeds, rapeseed or other oilseeds, needs to grow in order to guarantee sufficient quantity of resource, but again, the market for these crops needs to be secure before farmers will shift their production practices. Another option is the genetic selection of cows that produce reduced saturated fat milk as an approach that does not require a change in cows\u2019 diets.<\/p>\n

There is great potential to have a worldwide health impact. Questions still need addressing. If you are interested in collaborating with us on these, please get in touch! Email\u00a0k.m.green@reading.ac.uk<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kate Green, Partnerships Manager,\u00a0Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH) The shocking fact that 1 in 4 adults in the UK are obese is quite something. This figure has trebled…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1785,13],"tags":[174,458,461,910],"class_list":["post-1151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture-food-and-health","category-environment","tag-chris-reynolds","tag-ian-givens","tag-ifnh","tag-university-of-reading"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat do we know about the fat in our food? - Connecting Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What do we know about the fat in our food? - Connecting Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kate Green, Partnerships Manager,\u00a0Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH) The shocking fact that 1 in 4 adults in the UK are obese is quite something. This figure has trebled...Read More >\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Connecting Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theuniversityofreading\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-18T14:50:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-23T15:43:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2017\/09\/stream_img-300x169.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Martin Watts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UniRdg_Research\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UniRdg_Research\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Martin Watts\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Martin Watts\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7db63d5a455bb6b8a1655df56c4e6b0f\"},\"headline\":\"What do we know about the fat in our food?\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-18T14:50:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-23T15:43:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/\"},\"wordCount\":484,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Chris Reynolds\",\"Ian Givens\",\"IFNH\",\"University of Reading\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Agriculture, Food & Health\",\"Environment\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/\",\"name\":\"What do we know about the fat in our food? - Connecting Research\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-18T14:50:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-23T15:43:09+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What do we know about the fat in our food?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/\",\"name\":\"Connecting Research\",\"description\":\"Research stories from across the University of Reading\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Reading\",\"alternateName\":\"UoR\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2022\/10\/University-of-Reading-Logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2022\/10\/University-of-Reading-Logo-1.png\",\"width\":440,\"height\":147,\"caption\":\"University of Reading\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theuniversityofreading\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UniRdg_Research\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-reading\/mycompany\/verification\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCsFUmxmcVbVJ-9iGczsKfuw\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/University_of_Reading\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/uniofreading\/?hl=en\",\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@uniofreading\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7db63d5a455bb6b8a1655df56c4e6b0f\",\"name\":\"Martin Watts\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0e4330928a8450302f76e687aae444cc8cad1acaf78e26aec4a710f6a48b390?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0e4330928a8450302f76e687aae444cc8cad1acaf78e26aec4a710f6a48b390?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Martin Watts\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/author\/m-r-wattsreading-ac-uk\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What do we know about the fat in our food? - Connecting Research","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"What do we know about the fat in our food? - Connecting Research","og_description":"Kate Green, Partnerships Manager,\u00a0Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH) The shocking fact that 1 in 4 adults in the UK are obese is quite something. This figure has trebled...Read More >","og_url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/","og_site_name":"Connecting Research","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theuniversityofreading\/","article_published_time":"2017-09-18T14:50:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-02-23T15:43:09+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2017\/09\/stream_img-300x169.jpg"}],"author":"Martin Watts","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UniRdg_Research","twitter_site":"@UniRdg_Research","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Martin Watts","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/"},"author":{"name":"Martin Watts","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7db63d5a455bb6b8a1655df56c4e6b0f"},"headline":"What do we know about the fat in our food?","datePublished":"2017-09-18T14:50:40+00:00","dateModified":"2023-02-23T15:43:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/"},"wordCount":484,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Chris Reynolds","Ian Givens","IFNH","University of Reading"],"articleSection":["Agriculture, Food & Health","Environment"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/","name":"What do we know about the fat in our food? - Connecting Research","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-09-18T14:50:40+00:00","dateModified":"2023-02-23T15:43:09+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2017\/09\/18\/what-do-we-know-about-the-fat-in-our-food\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What do we know about the fat in our food?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/","name":"Connecting Research","description":"Research stories from across the University of Reading","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#organization","name":"University of Reading","alternateName":"UoR","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2022\/10\/University-of-Reading-Logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2022\/10\/University-of-Reading-Logo-1.png","width":440,"height":147,"caption":"University of Reading"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theuniversityofreading\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/UniRdg_Research","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-reading\/mycompany\/verification\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCsFUmxmcVbVJ-9iGczsKfuw","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/University_of_Reading","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/uniofreading\/?hl=en","https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@uniofreading"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7db63d5a455bb6b8a1655df56c4e6b0f","name":"Martin Watts","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0e4330928a8450302f76e687aae444cc8cad1acaf78e26aec4a710f6a48b390?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0e4330928a8450302f76e687aae444cc8cad1acaf78e26aec4a710f6a48b390?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Martin Watts"},"url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/author\/m-r-wattsreading-ac-uk\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1151"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26860,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions\/26860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}