Don't Fear The Fat: Experts Question Saturated Fat Guidelines --- As a culture, we tend to suffer from the angel-or-devil mindset. Especially when it comes to food. -- And for forty years now, saturated fat — found in high amounts in meat, cheese and other full-fat dairy products — has been one of our top nutritional demons. -- The U.S. Dietary Guidelines urge us to limit consumption due to concerns that saturated fat raises the risk of heart disease. But after decades of research, a growing number of experts is questioning this link. -- In fact, the authors of a new meta-analysis published in the Annals of Internal Medicine conclude that there's insufficient evidence to support the long-standing recommendation to consume saturated fat in very low amounts. -- So, let's walk through this shift in thinking: The concern over fat gathered steam in the 1960s when studies showed that saturated fat increases LDL cholesterol — the bad cholesterol — the artery clogging stuff. The assumption was that this increased the risk of heart disease. -- But after all this time, it just hasn't panned out, at least not convincingly. When researchers have tracked people's saturated fat intake over time and then followed-up to see if higher intake increases the risk of hearts attacks and strokes, they haven't found a clear, consistent link. -- In fact, the new study, finds, "null associations" (to quote the authors) between total saturated fat intake and coronary risk. And a prior analysis that included more than 300,000 participants came to a similar conclusion. -- So, what explains this? Well, researchers say the relationship between cholesterol and heart disease is a lot more complicated than was once understood. LDL is just one indicator of risk. -- What's now thought to be a more important predictor of risk is the ratio a person has of LDL to HDL, the good cholesterol. And there's evidence that, compared to carbohydrates, saturated fat can increase HDL and lower fat deposits in the blood called triglycerides, which, in theory, would be protective against heart disease. -- "So when you put this all together," says Dariucsh Mozaffarian, MD of Harvard and a co-author of the paper, what you see is that saturated fat has a relatively neutral effect. It's "not a beneficial effect, but not a harmful effect. And I think that's what the recent studies show." -- So, where does this lead us? Lots of experts say the lesson here is that you can't take a reductionist approach to good health. --- He says the lesson is to get away from recommendations that are built on single nutrients. A healthy diet, he says, should include a wide variety of minimally-processed, whole foods such as nuts and vegetable and olive oil (which has some saturated fat), as well as fish, fruits, vegetables and small portions of animal products such as yogurt and cheese. (Surprisingly, the health-promoting Mediterranean style diet is made up of about 45 percent of calories from fat, including small amounts of meat) - More, Allison Aubrey, NPR, at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/03/17/290846811/dont-fear-the-fat-experts-question-saturated-fat-guidelines