Saturated fat.\u00a0 Oh what a long and sorted history we have! What do you think of when you think of saturated fat? Butter? Beef? Heart disease? Avoidance? Standard nutritional advice and the dietary guidelines support a low saturated diet intake (<10%).\u00a0 Because saturated fat causes heart disease, right? Right?! Here\u2019s the thing, the supposed evidence backing this claim is, well, from my estimations and research, a bit shaky.\u00a0 Some of you may have seen some of the more recent articles like this\u00a0one\u00a0and this\u00a0one, in which medical minds have come forward and suggested the so-called evidence our current diet recommendations are based upon are not as solid as we have been led to believe.\u00a0 Some are saying these are new findings, and we have to have many years of research before we can consider making changes, etc., etc., but in truth, the studies are decades old \u2013 erroneous conclusions were just drawn.<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m not telling you to walk away from this thinking every government agency is out to get you; I simply want you to have all the facts, not just the more convenient or mainstream ones.\u00a0 I\u2019ve spent days and days reading through research articles and trying to get a firm handle on what the saturated fat research really says.\u00a0 So, here it is, to the best of my ability, the \u201cother side\u201d of the saturated fat story.<\/p>\n
Groundwork<\/u><\/strong> Saturated fat\u00a0<\/strong>– tends to come from animal sources, especially red meat and dairy.\u00a0 Coconut oil and butter are also good sources of saturated fat.<\/p>\n Polyunsaturated fat<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 mostly plant oils; the best ones are the ones that occur naturally like in nuts, avocado, seeds, fish<\/p>\n Cholesterol<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 is a type of fat that comes both from the diet and is produced in the body itself.\u00a0 Cholesterol gets a really bad rap, but it is ESSENTIAL for health.\u00a0 Cholesterol is necessary for the formation of steroids (like testosterone and estrogen), to form vitamin D, and for bile formation so you can digest fats.\u00a0 Total Cholesterol is a sum of LDL and HDL cholesterol. Remember that last bit; this means that if HDL (the definitely good stuff) increases and LDL remains the same, TOTAL CHOLESTEROL WILL INCREASE (making total cholesterol a poor indicator of actual health\/disease risk)<\/p>\n LDL<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 the \u201cbad\u201d cholesterol. Truthfully, LDL stands for low-density-lipoproteins.\u00a0 Essentially, LDL is a little \u201ctaxi\u201d for cholesterol. Cholesterol is carried around in LDLs and deposited into tissues. As noted above, cholesterol is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, i.e. LDLs are ABSOLUTELY\u00a0 NECESSARY.\u00a0 No LDL = no cholesterol to tissues = bad effects on health.<\/p>\n HDL<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 the \u201cgood\u201d cholesterol.\u00a0 So, if we think of LDLs as chickens walking around a farm (our body) and laying eggs (cholesterol) around the farm, we can think of HDL as the farmer, walking around the farm and picking up the eggs. HDL picks up the excess cholesterol, the cholesterol the body doesn\u2019t need, and returns it to the liver for disposal. \u00a0If there\u2019s not enough farmers (HDL), the chicken eggs start running rampant (cholesterol).<\/p>\n Ok, so the prevailing story is that saturated fat raises the risk of heart disease.\u00a0 The \u201cequation\u201d looks something like this:<\/p>\n Increased Saturated Fat Intake leads to Increased LDL I argue that correlation does not equal causation.\u00a0 Another way to put it (analogy thanks to my brother\u2026)<\/p>\n Fires cause Firemen to show up The problem with the Saturated Fat assumption is that it doesn\u2019t take all the facts about saturated fat\u2019s effects on the body into consideration. \u00a0Let\u2019s take a look at the research.\u00a0 So that this post doesn\u2019t get too long, I\u2019ve given a brief snippet of each article with a\u00a0citation\u00a0at the end of the summary to allow you to read even further.\u00a0 Text in italics is my comments\/additions to the summary.<\/p>\n 1) In an analysis of many, many studies on the relationship between saturated fat intake and heart disease risk, intake of saturated fat was NOT associated with an increased risk of \u00a0coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, or cardiovascular disease (CVD).\u00a0 Age, sex, and study quality did NOT change the results.\u00a0 Prospective epidemiologic (study over time of a group of people<\/em>) studies showed NO significant evidence to conclude dietary saturated fat increases risk of CHD or CVD\u00a0(1)<\/p>\n 2) This was a GREAT article.\u00a0 It examined three major reports by important U.S. and European advisory committees comparing the findings in scientific literature and the actual dietary advice relating saturated fat to CVD (USDA\/USDHHS report, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, and the European Food Safety Authority report). 3)\u00a0Article looking at the TYPE of LDL that saturated fat intake produces.\u00a0 There are two major type of LDL —\u00a0big, fluffy LDL particles (type A), and small, dense LDL particles (type B).<\/em> 4) Another brief study looking at the TYPE of LDL particles caused by saturated fat intake 5) Trading PUFAS for saturated fat in the diet. In summary, saturated fats do increase LDL \u2013 no disagreement there \u2013 but they increase the large, type A, \u201chealthier\u201d version of LDL and reduce the small, dense, type B disease-causing type of LDL.\u00a0 LDL is necessary for cholesterol to make its way around the body to the needy tissues and cholesterol is essential for good health.\u00a0 Saturated fats also increase HDL, one of the most significant modifiers of heart disease risk.\u00a0 The higher your HDL, the better.\u00a0 PUFAs and carbohydrates do NOT positively affect HDL levels.<\/p>\n This is just a truly brief summary on all the information out there, but I hope it\u2019s enough to get you thinking and asking questions.\u00a0 I hope to hear from you and encourage you to read a bit more about this complex and really fascinating subject.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never been a proponent of the saturated fat vilifying.\u00a0 As a nutrition\u00a0blog\u00a0I enjoy puts it, blaming old foods (like butter, beef, milk) on new problems (like metabolic syndrome, obesity, and type 2 diabetes) just doesn\u2019t make sense.\u00a0 Eat real foods, whole foods; save the processing for your toys and clothes. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n (1) Siri \u2013 Siri-Tarino, PW, Qi S, Hu FB, & Krauss RM. Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease.\u00a0Am J Clin Nutr<\/em>. 2010 Jan 13. doi: 10.3945\/ajcn.2009.27725 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Saturated fat.\u00a0 Oh what a long and sorted history we have! What do you think of when you think of saturated fat? Butter? Beef? Heart disease? Avoidance? Standard nutritional advice…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nOk, let\u2019s set some groundwork:<\/p>\n
\nIncreased LDL leads to Increased Heart Disease Risk
\nSo\u2026.
\nIncreased Saturated Fat Intake leads to Increased Heart Disease Risk<\/p>\n
\nFireman cause Women to swoon
\nBut\u2026
\nFires don\u2019t cause Women to swoon<\/p>\n
\n-Saturated fat intake increases LDL; Carbohydrates do not increase LDL
\n-Saturated fat increases HDL (the GOOD stuff!); Carbohydrates do not
\n-HDL and LDL are INDEPENDENT risk predictors of heart disease (i.e. HDL is a NEGATIVE risk factor).\u00a0In other words, \u00a0 \u00a0 the higher your HDL level, the lower your risk of heart disease<\/em>
\n– AND ratio of total cholesterol to HDL was the STRONGEST predictor of heart disease mortality.\u00a0 So, again, the higher your HDL, the lower your risk of heart disease.\u00a0\u00a0(This is super important because much\/most of the medical world\u2019s emphasis is on LDL levels, but HDL has the GREATEST impact on heart disease risk.\u00a0 Remember, saturated fats INCREASE HDL, while carbohydrates do not and may even lower it.)<\/em>
\n-Polyunsaturated (PUFA) vs Saturated fat, or eating more polyunsaturated fats in place of saturated fats: protective effect against CVD risk was found, but NO significant association with CVD mortality; no significant effect when just looking at PUFA veggie oils; researchers did NOT conclude that saturated fat would change CVD risk (That was a lot, I know. Essentially, the study found that saturated fat and PUFAs had little difference on heart disease risk and no effect on death from heart disease)<\/em>
\n– analyzing 20+ cohort studies (following a group of people through time to see an effect<\/em>) looking at saturated fat intake and CVD risk, only ONE small cohort found an association and the effect was only in men (in other words, out of 20+ studies, only ONE found that saturated fat intake increased heart disease risk)<\/em>
\n– none of the investigators from the systematic reviews or pooled analyses concluded that changes in saturated fat intake would change CVD risk\u00a0(i.e. none of the researchers\/authors found that reducing saturated fat intake had a beneficial effect on heart disease)<\/em>
\n– the USDA\/IOM, etc reports that wrote actual dietary recommendations based on research, used a limited number of studies, picking and choosing what they wanted to discuss.\u00a0\u00a0(the authors of the reports basically used only pieces of the studies or chose studies to include that supported what they wanted to say instead of disclosing and using all of the available evidence and research)<\/em>
\n*Saturated fat increases LDL; LDL increases CVD risk\u2026 Saturated fat also increases HDL; HDL reduces CVD riskmost significantly<\/u>\u00a0(2)<\/p>\n
\n-Dietary saturated fat –> larger LDL particles (type A)\u00a0<\/em>
\n-Small, dense LDL particles (type B) –> increased risk of heart disease
\n-Some studies have shown small LDL (type B) to be more atherogenic (causing blockage of blood vessels and leading to increased heart disease risk<\/em>) than larger LDL (type A) secondary to increased susceptibility to oxidation (oxidation = inflammation = bad)<\/em>\u00a0and increased promotion of intracellular cholesterol accumulation (cholesterol is more likely to get stuck in the blood vessels and accumulate, blocking blood flow and increasing heart disease risk)<\/em>
\n– Reduction in small LDL (but not larger) associated w\/ decreased heart disease progression \u00a0(Saturated fat causes increase in LARGE LDL particles; SMALL LDL particles are the dangerous, heart disease-promoting form of LDL; saturated fat leads to more LARGE particles, not SMALL (disease-causing) LDL particles)\u00a0<\/em>(3)<\/p>\n
\n– LDL bigger –> less atherogenic; what some lipid-controlling meds (like HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) do (so, drugs aimed at reducing heart disease risk \u201cwork\u201d by reducing the number of small LDLs and increasing the number of LARGE LDLs; saturated fat does this too)<\/em>(4)<\/p>\n
\n– PUFA for Saturated fat supported by a few studies, but not in others
\n– PUFA in place of saturated fat lowers LDL\u00a0AND<\/strong>\u00a0HDL (remember, HDL = good)<\/em>
\n– Carbohydrate in place of saturated fats (especially refined carbs), increase triglycerids (fats in the blood<\/em>), increase small LDL (the disease-causing type)<\/em>, and decreased HDL (the really good stuff)\u00a0(5)<\/em><\/p>\n
\n(2) \u00a0Hoenselarr, R. Saturated fat and cardiovascular disease: the discrepancy between the scientific literature and dietary advice.\u00a0Nutrition<\/em>. 2012 Feb; 28(2): 118-123
\n(3) Dreon DM, Fernstrom HA, Blanche P, Williams PT, & Krauss RM. Change in dietary saturated fat intake is correlated with change in mass of large low-density-lipoprotein particles in men.\u00a0Am J Clin Nutr<\/em>. 1998 May; 67(5): 828-836
\n(4) Packard C, Caslake M, & Shepherd J. The role of small, dense low density lipoprotein (LDL): a new look.\u00a0International Journal of Cardiology<\/em>. 2000 June 30; 74(suppl. 1): S17-S22
\n(5) Siri-Tarino PW, Qi S, Hu FB, & Krauss RM. Saturated fat, carbohydrate, and cardiovascular disease.\u00a0Am J Clin Nutr.\u00a0<\/em>2010 March; 91(3): 502-509<\/p>\n