ISSFAL Policy Statements.
One of the ways in which ISSFAL seeks to achieve its aims is to make public pronouncements on issues concerning the impact of fatty acids and lipids on human health.
In order to ensure that this is done in a manner which results in a consensus view being propounded, procedures which are to be used for this purpose have been drawn up and agreed .
The agreed procedure is:
1.The need for a statement is proposed by an ISSFAL Board member, and the proposal circulated by e-mail to all current members of the Board of Directors for comment. Comments shall be directed to the Secretary/Treasurer for collation, who shall disseminate them to Board members. The subject of the statement is re-defined in the light of Board comments, and the Officers of ISSFAL appoint a sub-committee to recommend a draft statement.
2. The Officers of ISSFAL appoint the Chairperson or Co-chairpersons.
3. The sub-committee prepares a draft statement which is sent to the ISSFAL Secretary/Treasurer for onward transmission to ISSFAL Officers to determine its appropriateness for presentation to the current members of the Board of Directors. If further revision is deemed necessary, the sub-committee will be asked to re-examine the statement accordingly, and re-submitted to Issfal Officers. If further revision is not deemed necessary by ISSFAL Officers, the proposed statement shall be placed on the member-only pages of the Society website. A notice shall also be placed in the Society pages of PLEFA drawing attention to the availability of the draft statement on the website, and this draft statement shall remain on the website, accessible only to logged-in members, for a period of not less than 4 weeks after the on-line version of the relevant issue of PLEFA has been published. At the end of this period, the Secretary/Treasurer shall either present the draft statement for approval at the next meeting of the Board, or forward by mail or by e-mail, the proposed ISSFAL statement to all current members of the Board of Directors with a request that the statement be approved or not as the Board member decides. Board members will transmit their decision to the ISSFAL Secretary/Treasurer either by mail, or e-mail. The ISSFAL Secretary/Treasurer, will gather all the votes and report the result to the Board. A statement shall be considered approved if at least 75% of current members of the Board of Directors approve it. (This version of clause 3 was adopted at the Kansas City Board meeting in May 2008)
4. If the proposed statement does not receive the support of at least 75% of current members of the Board of Directors then it shall be returned to the original sub-committee for further discussion and if felt appropriate, represented to ISSFAL Officers as under 3 above, for a further attempt to gain approval by at least 75% of current members of the Board of Directors.
5. Once the statement is approved, it is published in the ISSFAL Newsletter, on the ISSFAL website, sent for publication to relevant journals, and brought to the attention of various professional groups and Government agencies by ISSFAL Officers and/or members of the Board of Directors.
Procedure above was modified and agreed July 2006, and modified May 2008.
The first statement
is of a general nature, and recommends for the first time (in 1993) an
increased intake of the long chain omega-3 polyunsaturates from fish, so as to
reduce risk of death from cardiovascular
disease.
The second statement
provides advice on the dietary fatty acids that are appropriate for use in
infant feeding formulae. It was first approved in 1994, and revised in 2006 in
the light of further published evidence.
The third statement
deals specifically with advice concerning the dietary intake of the long chain omega-3
polyunsaturates by adults in order that their risk of death from cardiovascular
disease be reduced. It recommends that adults consume a minimum of 500mg daily.
This statement was first published in 2004.
The fourth statement
deals with advice on dietary fatty acids intake to pregnant and lactating
women. ISSFAL subscribed to the consensus Perilip statement, which recommends among other things that pregnant
and lactating women be advised to consume a minimum of 200mg of docosahexaenoic
acid (DHA) daily. This statement was published in 2007.
The fifth statement
deals with the extent to which the 18 carbon omega-3 polyunsaturate alpha-linolenic
acid (ALA) is metabolised in humans to the 20 and 22 carbon omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)
and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).The statement declares that the evidence available demonstrates that for most people under modern dietary
conditions, there is no nutritionally significant conversion of ALA to EPA or
more especially DHA. This statement was published in 2009.
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