Canadian Dietary Fat Substitutions, 1955–93, and Coronary Heart Disease Costs

In this paper, we use a prevalence-based, cost-of-illness approach to estimate the impact of change in dietary fat intake on coronary heart disease (CHD) costs in Canada. To this end, we review the clinical studies that have examined the relationship between fatty acid consumption and serum cholesterol levels. We estimate the increase in consumption of less saturated vegetable oils, which displaced some of the animal fats in the Canadian diet between 1955 and 1993, was responsible for an estimated 10.1% reduction in the incidence of CHD in Canada. This implies ex post a $832 million reduction in direct and indirect CHD costs in 1993. To put it another way, if Canadians had retained their 1955 diet in 1993, CHD costs would have been $832 million greater. Since many of these costs are external to marketplace, the magnitude of these numbers suggests a need to include health costs in the economic analysis of policies that affect fatty acid intake.