naturalnews.com printable article
Originally published April 25 2016
The great cholesterol con finally unravels: Researchers find lowering cholesterol has NO EFFECT on risk of heart disease or death
by David Gutierrez, staff writer
(NaturalNews) Common dietary advice is to avoid saturated fats and instead consume polyunsaturated fats, like those found in vegetable oils. But this dietary consensus is starting to crack in the face of study after study showing no health benefit to avoiding saturated fat.
The most recent study was conducted by researchers from the universities of North Carolina and Illinois, in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health, and published in the British Medical Journal. It found that while a diet that replaced saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat did cause blood cholesterol to drop, this led to no change in the risk of heart disease or death.
Except among the people who had the greatest drop in blood cholesterol. Those became more likely to die.
Cholesterol? Saturated fat? Probably fine
The researchers re-analyzed data gathered from the 1970s Minnesota Coronary Experiment, in which 9,423 residents of state mental hospitals and a nursing home were randomly assigned to either keep the same diet or to replace butter and other saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats (in the form of margarine and corn oil).
There was no connection at all between polyunsaturated fat consumption and heart disease risk.
The study did not examine another category of fats, monounsaturated fats, found in high levels in olive oil and many nuts.
The researchers concluded that there has been an "overestimation of the benefits of replacing saturated fat with vegetable oils."
British cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, and adviser to the National Obesity Forum, agrees.
"The public health message needs to change to focus on dietary changes that are proven to improve health and that means following a high fat Mediterranean style diet."
The official consensus on cholesterol has already started to change. In 2015, the United States became the last nation on earth to drop its warning against dietary cholesterol, after the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee concluded that there is no scientific evidence of a connection between cholesterol intake and heart disease.
Even so, the go
Originally published April 25 2016
The great cholesterol con finally unravels: Researchers find lowering cholesterol has NO EFFECT on risk of heart disease or death
by David Gutierrez, staff writer
(NaturalNews) Common dietary advice is to avoid saturated fats and instead consume polyunsaturated fats, like those found in vegetable oils. But this dietary consensus is starting to crack in the face of study after study showing no health benefit to avoiding saturated fat.
The most recent study was conducted by researchers from the universities of North Carolina and Illinois, in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health, and published in the British Medical Journal. It found that while a diet that replaced saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat did cause blood cholesterol to drop, this led to no change in the risk of heart disease or death.
Except among the people who had the greatest drop in blood cholesterol. Those became more likely to die.
Cholesterol? Saturated fat? Probably fine
The researchers re-analyzed data gathered from the 1970s Minnesota Coronary Experiment, in which 9,423 residents of state mental hospitals and a nursing home were randomly assigned to either keep the same diet or to replace butter and other saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats (in the form of margarine and corn oil).
There was no connection at all between polyunsaturated fat consumption and heart disease risk.
The study did not examine another category of fats, monounsaturated fats, found in high levels in olive oil and many nuts.
The researchers concluded that there has been an "overestimation of the benefits of replacing saturated fat with vegetable oils."
British cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, and adviser to the National Obesity Forum, agrees.
"The public health message needs to change to focus on dietary changes that are proven to improve health and that means following a high fat Mediterranean style diet."
The official consensus on cholesterol has already started to change. In 2015, the United States became the last nation on earth to drop its warning against dietary cholesterol, after the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee concluded that there is no scientific evidence of a connection between cholesterol intake and heart disease.
Even so, the go