For decades, dietary cholesterol is believed as one of the major risk factors that contribute to the cardiovascular diseases. Previously, in Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) 2010, dietary cholesterol was limited to less than 300 mg per day. This number is also adopted by Dietary Guidelines for Indonesians until now (BPOM’s ALG 2016 and Permenkes RI’s AKG 2013). Surprisingly, in the latest US Dietary Guidelines (DGA 2015-2020) based on a recommendation from USDA, dietary cholesterol is no longer included in the nutrients that should be limited, despite of high total blood cholesterol is still claimed to be one of the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Only added sugars, saturated fats & sodium that included in the dietary limitation. These new recommendations raise some questions: Why dietary cholesterol is no longer a concern? Should these new recommendations also be applied to other countries in Asia, such as Indonesia and Malaysia? This interesting topic could be a broad field for clinical studies and meta-analyses in this region in the near future.
Keywords : cholesterol, dietary cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, dietary guidelines, USDA, Indonesia, BPOM