Saturated fats don’t cause heart disease after all
Oops! Turns out saturated fats don’t cause heart disease after all . . .
How many times have you heard “saturated fat causes heart disease”? This weakly supported medical dogma has been repeated incessantly over the last 20 years, to the likely detriment of our health. How could this be? More about that in a minute.
In the meantime, a recent well-designed study published in the prestigious American Journal of Clinical Nutrition informs us that saturated fat does not cause heart disease.
Researchers from Harvard and the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute took a look at 21 clinical studies related to heart disease, stroke, and saturated fat consumption. This is what they concluded:
“A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat.”
CARBS THAT KILL There’s more to the story, as indicated by the last sentence of the summary: The authors suggest that the replacement of saturated fats with carbohydrates, a common practice recommended from the “experts”, has an adverse effect on health.
Although saturated fat increases so-called bad LDL cholesterol, it actually promotes a large, bouyant LDL particle type, which is relatively harmless. In contrast, a high carbohydrate diet promotes a small dense LDL particle type, which is quite dangerous. Small dense LDL particles confer a risk of heart disease over 4X greater compared to large bouyant LDLs.
One can’t help but wonder how many people were killed prematurely by this faulty advice, doled out so confidently by so many over the years.
In addition, seed oil technology (corn, soybean safflower etc) enabled ever greater amounts of oil to be extracted, then processed for greater shelf life, losing their protective antioxidants and precious omega 3 content.
The vilification of saturated fat came about mainly because saturated fat does increase LDL levels. A loose extrapolation from this fact led to the belief — an article of faith rather than fact — that saturated fat must be bad for you. Apparently not.
gasoline.
QUESTION: How long will it take before this research is reflected in front line clinical practice?
Tarino and Sun et al, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, January 20, 2010
