When it comes to diet…saturated fat has been the number one public health enemy for decades. For years, American were urged to eat margarine instead of butter because margarine had no cholesterol. Instead, margarine had trans fats to make it solid at room temperature.
A study published in BMJ this week reveals that the public health advice was totally backwards. Saturated fat is not nearly as bad as it used to seem, and trans fat is worse by far.
Statistical Analysis Tells the Story:
The statisticians reviewed data from as many as 12 dietary studies including more than 300,000 participants. They found no association between saturated fat consumption and the risk of premature death, heart disease, stroke or type 2 diabetes.
Did that register with you? Our worst dietary nightmare, sat fat, was not liked to all the terrible things we have been warned about for the last 50 years. Lest you think this is an anomaly and could not possibly be true, here is a link to another analysis involving 72 studies and over 600,000 participants. Once again, no association between saturated fat and heart disease.
The Trouble with Trans Fat:
People who ate trans fat from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil were about 30 percent more likely to die during the study and 20 percent more likely to develop heart disease. That was really not the outcome that the diet advisors had in mind! Clearly, trans fat is worse than they anticipated.
Hopefully, public health experts will be more cautious about issuing dietary guidelines in the future, so the proposed fix doesn’t end up making matters worse.
The FDA recently took action to get trans fats out of the food supply. The ban won’t take effect until 2018, though. We wrote about it here. Are you outraged? Do you wonder who to trust when it comes to dietary advice? We do not blame you if you are frustrated.
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