WIKIMEDIA, KAGOREating trans fats—the kinds produced by partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils or found naturally in meat—is linked with an increased risk of coronary heart disease and dying sooner. Saturated fats, on the other hand, which come from meat, butter, eggs, and some vegetable oils, did not have such associations. Both findings were published this week (August 12) in The BMJ.
“This result will be surprising to some since recommendations to lower saturated fat are still widely circulated, but there seems to be little basis for that—at least this study didn’t find any,” George Bray, a member of the American Board of Obesity Medicine who was not part of the study, told MedPage Today.
In their systematic review, the authors noted that dietary guidelines recommend limiting saturated and trans fats to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. To clear up the confusion, they pooled the results of several studies looking at links between the consumption of either saturated or trans fats and various conditions.
Saturated fats, it turned out, were not associated with stroke, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, or early death, “but ...
