no evidence saturated fat leads to heart disease

Goofproof wrote:The facts are change happens, nothing lasts forever, we can't control everything. Jim

SnoresLikeWalrus wrote:From the Reuter's article you provided:

"The findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, may sound like good news for steak lovers, but a past AHA president cautioned against "over interpreting" the results.

"No one is saying that some saturated fat is going to harm you...people should enjoy their food," said Dr. Robert H. Eckel, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.

But, he pointed out, many studies have shown that dietary saturated fat can raise people's cholesterol, and the new analysis is not going to change recommendations to keep saturated fat intake in check.

Perhaps more importantly, though, Eckel said that the thinking on diet and heart health is moving away from a focus on single nutrients and toward "dietary patterns."

A number of studies have linked the so-called Western diet to greater heart disease risks; that diet pattern is defined as one high in red and processed meats and saturated fats -- but also high in sweets and other refined carbohydrates like white bread.

On the other hand, diets described as Mediterranean or "prudent" -- generally high in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, unsaturated fats from vegetable oil -- may help lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.

It's that type of eating pattern that people should strive for, Eckel said.

For the current study, researchers led by Dr. Ronald M. Krauss, of the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Center in California, pooled data from 21 studies that included a total of nearly 348,000 adults."

SnoresLikeWalrus wrote:Here's another one for you:

Low-Carb Diet Could Raise Bad Cholesterol Levels

Thursday , February 25, 2010

Cutting down on carbs may help people lose weight, but it may not be so good for lowering cholesterol, new research shows.

People who ate a diet low in carbohydrates but relatively high in fat lost the same amount of weight over six weeks as those who consumed a high-carb diet.

But levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or "bad" cholesterol increased significantly in the low-carb group, while they fell in the high-carb group. High LDL levels are a risk factor for heart disease because they are linked to clogged arteries.

Low-carb diets have become increasingly popular in recent years, and proponents claim they may be more effective for reducing diabetes risk and cholesterol levels, Dr. Teri L. Hernandez of the University of Colorado at Denver in Aurora and her colleagues write in their report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

But little is actually known about how these diets compare with higher-carb weight loss plans in terms of these effects, they add.

To investigate the effects of diet on these measures during active weight loss, Hernandez and her team randomly assigned 32 obese adults to follow a low-carbohydrate diet, including 20 grams of carbohydrate or less daily, or a high-carb diet with 55 percent of calories coming from carbohydrates for six weeks.

Both groups lost around 6 kilograms (13 pounds). But the individuals on the low-carb diet actually had an average increase of 12 milligrams per deciliter increase in their LDL levels, up from 109 milligrams per deciliter (less than 100 is considered optimal); the high-carb diet group showed a 7 milligram per deciliter decrease, down from 102.

The low-carb group also showed greater increases in their levels of free fatty acids, which are released into the blood when the body breaks down stored fat. High levels of free fatty acids make it more difficult for the liver to store glucose, which in turn ups sugar levels in the blood. Consistently high sugar levels define diabetes.

"These data suggest that a high-fat diet may have adverse metabolic effects during active weight loss," Hernandez and her team conclude.