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Home :: Your Q&A
Is Saturated Fat Bad For You?
Q. I’ve heard about a new study showing that saturated fat isn’t as bad for you as previously thought. What’s your take on it?
A. The American Heart Association recommends that adults get no more than 7 percent of their daily calories from saturated fat.
But in the study you're talking about, researchers found no clear evidence that higher saturated fat intakes led to higher risks of heart disease or stroke.
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was a meta analysis designed to summarize the evidence linking saturated fat and cardiovascular disease in prospective epidemiologic studies [5].
A meta-analysis combines the results of several studies that address a set of related research hypotheses. Basically, the researchers pooled data from 21 studies that included a total of almost 348,000 adults.
Participants were surveyed about their dietary habits and then followed for anywhere from five to 23 years. Over that time, 11,000 developed heart disease or suffered a stroke.
But when they crunched the numbers, the researchers could find "no significant evidence" to suggest that saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, or coronary heart disease.
In a follow-up article in the same journal, the same authors also point out that there is little evidence to show that a reduction in saturated fat below 9% of total energy intake is associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease [4].
Ironically, in the very same month the study was published, here in the UK we had the "food police" suggesting that butter should be banned altogether.
Dr. Shyam Kolvekar, a heart surgeon at University College London Hospital, says that by the time he sees many of his patients, it is too late. Their hearts and cardiovascular system are too damaged for repair. He wants to stop heart disease before it starts by getting people to limit saturated fat in the diet. And to get the ball rolling, he suggests "banning butter."
So why all the confusion? Everywhere you turn it seems as though some “expert” is saying something completely different. What's going on?
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