Tuesday, 23 March 2010

Animal fats do not cause heart disease.

PMID 20071648 Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease. (Siri-Tarino et al. Amercican Journal of Clinical Nutrition, March 2010)

This very recent meta-analysis shows that there is "no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD".

This analysis includes a large number of subjects (347,747), and from 5-23 years of follow-up.

Similar results come out of several large studies - for example the Swedish "Malmö Diet and Cancer Study" (PMID 16018792 - Journal of Internal Medicine, August 2005). The authors conclude: 


"With the exception of cancer mortality for women in the highest quartile of relative fat intake, individuals receiving more than 30% of their total daily energy from fat did not have increased mortality. Men in the fourth quartile of total fat intake, receiving almost 50% of their total energy intake from fat, had the lowest cardiovascular mortality. Receiving more than 10% of total energy intake from saturated fat did not have a significant effect on all-cause, cardiovascular or cancer mortality for men or women. Beneficial effects of relatively high intakes of unsaturated fats were not uniform, and having a high index of unsaturated fat compared with saturated fat intake did not have any detectable effect on mortality."

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