Misconceptions about fats and cholesterol: Implications for dietary guidelines

To be effective, dietary guidelines must be understandable by their audiences. Misconceptions interfere with acceptance of correct but conflicting information, contributing to unhealthy dietary behavior. This study was undertaken to identify, from a cognitive perspective, misconceptions about dietary fat and cholesterol and their roots. Eighty‐eight women and men participated in semistructured interviews that identified their knowledge structure and misconceptions. Women had slightly more numerous and serious (potential to lead to inappropriate food choices) misconceptions than men. Both groups had numerous misconceptions in common (saturated fats have more fat or calories than unsaturated fats). Most misconceptions could be attributed to missing or incomplete information, yet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans bulletin on fat and cholesterol was ineffective in changing them. These results have implications for public health education efforts: common misconceptions need to be identified and addressed, or they will reduce effectiveness of the efforts.

Key words:

• Misconceptions
• nutrition knowledge
• dietary fats
• cholesterol
• public health
• nutrition education