Eat less saturated fat: that has been the take-home message from the
U.S. government for the past 30 years. But while Americans have
dutifully reduced the percentage of daily calories from saturated fat
since 1970, the obesity
rate during that time has more than doubled, diabetes has tripled, and heart
disease is still the country’s biggest killer. Now a spate of new
research, including a meta-analysis of nearly two dozen studies,
suggests a reason why: investigators may have picked the wrong culprit.
Processed carbohydrates, which many Americans eat today in place of fat,
may increase the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease more than
fat does—a finding that has serious implications for new dietary
guidelines expected this year.
In March the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a meta-analysis—which combines data from several studies—that compared the reported daily food intake of nearly 350,000 people against their risk of developing cardiovascular disease over a period of five to 23 years. The analysis, overseen by Ronald M. Krauss, director of atherosclerosis research at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, found no association between the amount of saturated fat consumed and the risk of heart disease.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Carbs against Cardio: More Evidence that Refined Carbohydrates, not Fats, Threaten the Heart: Scientific American
Author: Melinda Wenner Moyer
