Though scientists have long claimed that the saturated fat in meat, cheese and delicious, delicious butter will cause your heart to stop in an instant, they now say that is wrong. According to a new study, there is no evidence of a link between saturated fat and heart disease. You're welcome, Subway Brie Man.
The study, published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found no increase in heart disease among people who ate a diet higher in saturated fats. It also found no decrease in heart disease among people who ate low levels of saturated fat. The report looked at nearly 80 studies that involved over 500,000 individuals, following their diets, fat tissue and fatty acids in their bloodstreams. They looked not only at what people reportedly ate, but at more objective measures such as the composition of fatty acids in their bloodstreams and in their fat tissue. "My take on this would be that it’s not saturated fat that we should worry about," Dr. Rajiv Chowdhury, the lead author of the study, told the Times.
What does contribute to heart risk, apparently, are carbohydrates, those sneaky little bread bastards. "It’s the high carbohydrate or sugary diet that should be the focus of dietary guidelines,” Chowdhury said. “If anything is driving your low-density lipoproteins in a more adverse way, it’s carbohydrates.” Though if you think this new revelation gives you the go-ahead to dine on delectable animal flesh and danishes all day, you are incorrect, sir. Researchers say the studies indicate a need to focus on eating more "real food" instead of protein or carbo-loading, so perhaps don't make All-You-Can-Eat Ribs & Spaghetti Night a regular thing.
Scientists also suggest replacing saturated fats with omega-3 fatty acids found in foods like walnuts and oily fish, which still have heart risk-lowering properties. We will think long and hard about this after rolling around in some butter for a couple hours.
