5 Studies on Saturated Fat — Time to Retire the Myth?

Since the 1950s, people have believed that saturated fat is bad for human health.

This was originally based on observational studies showing that people who consumed a lot of saturated fat had higher rates of death from heart disease.

The diet-heart hypothesis states that saturated fat raises LDL (bad) cholesterol in the blood, which then supposedly lodges in the arteries and causes heart disease.

Even though this hypothesis has never been proven, most official dietary guidelines are based on it.

While the issue is still debated, numerous recent studies have found no link between saturated fat consumption and heart disease.

This article reviews 5 of the large, most comprehensive and most recent studies on this issue.
1. Hooper L, et al. Reduction in saturated fat intake for cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database Systematic Review, 2015.

Details: This is a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, performed by the Cochrane collaboration — an independent organization of scientists.

This review includes 15 randomized controlled trials with over 59,000 participants.

Each of these studies had a control group, reduced saturated fat or replaced it with other types of fat, lasted for at least 24 months, and looked at hard endpoints, such as heart attacks or death.

Results: The study found no statistically significant effects of reducing saturated fat, in regard to heart attacks, strokes, or all-cause deaths.

Although reducing saturated fat had no effects, replacing some of it with polyunsaturated fat led to a 27% lower risk of cardiovascular events (but not death, heart attacks, or strokes).

Conclusion: People who reduced their saturated fat intake were just as likely to die, or get heart attacks or strokes, compared to those who ate more saturated fat.

However, partially replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat may reduce the risk of cardiovascular events (but not death, heart attacks, or strokes).

These results are similar to a previous Cochrane review, done in 2011 .

2. De Souza RJ, et al. Intake of saturated and trans unsaturated fatty acids and risk of all- cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes: Systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.Trusted Source BMJ, 2015.

Details: This systematic, observational review of studies looked at the association of saturated fat and heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and death from cardiovascular disease.

The data included 73 studies, with 90,500–339,000 participants for each endpoint.

Results: Saturated fat intake wasn’t linked with heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, or dying of any cause.

Conclusion: People who consumed more saturated fat weren’t more likely to experience heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, or death from any cause, compared to those who ate less saturated fat.

However, the results from the individual studies were very diverse, so it’s hard to draw an exact conclusion from them.

The researchers rated the certainty of the association as “low,” emphasizing the need for more high-quality studies on the subject.

3. Siri-Tarino PW, et al. Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease.Trusted Source American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2010.

Details: This review looked at evidence from observational studies on the link between dietary saturated fat and risk of heart disease and stroke.

The studies included a total of 347,747 participants, who were followed for 5–23 years.

Results: During follow up, about 3% of participants (11,006 people) developed heart disease or stroke.

Saturated fat intake wasn’t linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, or strokes, even among those with the highest intake.

Conclusion: This study didn’t find any association between saturated fat intake and cardiovascular disease.

4. Chowdhury R, et al. Association of dietary, circulating, and supplement fatty acids with coronary risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Trusted Source Annals of Internal Medicine Journal, 2014.

Details: This review looked at cohort studies and randomized controlled trials on the link between dietary fatty acids and the risk of heart disease or sudden cardiac death.

The study included 49 observational studies with more than 550,000 participants, as well as 27 randomized controlled trials with more than 100,000 participants.

Results: The study didn’t find any link between saturated fat consumption and the risk of heart disease or death.

Conclusion: People with higher saturated fat intake weren’t at an increased risk of heart disease or sudden death.

Furthermore, the researchers didn’t find any benefit to consuming polyunsaturated fats instead of saturated fats. Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids were an exception, as they had protective effects.

5. Schwab U, et al. Effect of the amount and type of dietary fat on risk factors for cardiometabolic risk factors, and risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer: A systematic review.Trusted Source Food and Nutrition Research, 2014.

Details: This systematic review assessed the effects of the amount and type of dietary fat on body weight and risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Participants included both people who were healthy and those with risk factors. This review included 607 studies, including randomized controlled trials, prospective cohort studies, and nested case-control studies.

Results: Consuming saturated fat wasn’t linked with an increased risk of heart disease or an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

The researchers found that partially replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat may lower LDL (bad) cholesterol concentrations.

It also may decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, especially in men.

However, substituting refined carbs for saturated fat may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Conclusion: Eating saturated fat doesn’t increase the risk of heart disease or type 2 diabetes. However, partially replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat may help reduce the risk of heart disease, especially in men.
Bottom line

    Reducing saturated fat has no effect on the risk of heart disease or death.
    Replacing saturated fat with refined carbs seems to increase the risk of heart disease.
    Replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat may reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, but results for heart attacks, strokes, and death are mixed.

Time to retire the myth?

People with certain medical conditions or cholesterol problems may need to watch their saturated fat intake.

However, study results selected for this article are pretty clear that, for the average individual, saturated fat has no significant association with heart disease.

That being said, there may be a small benefit to replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat.

This doesn’t mean that saturated fat is “bad” — just that it’s neutral, while some unsaturated fats are particularly healthy.

By replacing something that’s neutral with something that’s very healthy, you’ll get a net health benefit.

Healthy sources of unsaturated fats include nuts, seeds, fatty fish, extra virgin olive oil, and avocados.

At the end of the day, there doesn’t seem to be any reason for the general population to worry about saturated fat.

There are other issues that are much more worthy of your attention, like avoiding sugary soda and junk food, eating healthy food, and exercising.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

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Hearing Loss Raises Depression Risk in Elderly

Older adults with age-related hearing loss are more likely to have the greater risk of depressive symptoms, finds a study. The researchers,  found that older adults with mild hearing loss were almost twice as likely to have clinically significant symptoms of depression than those with normal hearing. Individuals with severe hearing loss had over four times the odds of having depressive symptoms. It is because “people with hearing loss have trouble communicating and tend to become more socially isolated, and social isolation can lead to depression”, explained lead author. The findings suggest that treatment of age-related hearing loss, which is under-recognized and under-treated among all elderly, could be one way to head off late-life depression.

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Eating walnuts may lower heart disease risk

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 Consuming about 60 grams of tree nuts, such as walnuts, daily may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, a new study has claimed.

After conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of 61 controlled trials, Michael Falk from Life Sciences Research Organisation in US, found that consuming tree nuts lowers total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and ApoB, the primary protein found in LDL cholesterol.

These are key factors that are used to evaluate a person's risk of cardiovascular disease. Walnuts were investigated in 21 of the 61 trials, more than any other nut reviewed in this study, researchers said.

"Our study results further support the growing body of research that tree nuts, such as walnuts, can reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases," said Falk.

"Tree nuts contain important nutrients such as unsaturated fats, protein, vitamins and minerals. Walnuts are the only nut that provide a significant amount (2.5 grams per one ounce serving) of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), the plant-based form of omega-3s," Falk said.

Beyond finding that tree nuts lower total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and ApoB, researchers also found that consuming at least two servings (two ounces or 57 grammes) per day of tree nuts, such as walnuts, has stronger effects on total cholesterol and LDL.

Additionally, results showed that tree nut consumption may be particularly important for lowering the risk of heart disease in individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Of 1,301 articles surveyed, 61 trials met eligibility criteria for this systematic review and meta-analysis, totalling 2,582 unique participants.

Trials directly provided nuts to the intervention group rather than relying solely on dietary advice to consume nuts.

The dose of nuts varied from 5 to 100g/day and most participants followed their typical diet.

More than two decades of research has shown that walnuts may help lower cardiovascular risk factors by decreasing LDL (bad) cholesterol by 9-16 per cent and diastolic blood pressure by 2-3 mmHg, as well as reducing total cholesterol, raising HDL cholesterol, reducing inflammation as measured by C-reactive protein, and improving arterial function.

These factors are major contributors to heart disease risk, and reducing them is a critical step towards a healthier heart, researchers said.

In addition to providing omega-3s, walnuts also deliver a convenient source of fibre (2 grams per ounce) and protein (4 grams per ounce).

The Happiness Effect

Happiness is comprised of many things. The classical happiness, as we think of it, is the happiness when things go our way - we find that special someone, we have a good job, a loving family and friends. But happiness also requires being happy with your body, not being in pain, as well the actual chemical reaction that the brain induces when it wants you to feel good. 

So how to get that good chemical feeling without using things that are bad for us, like fatty foods, chocolate or alcohol?

Exercise is actually a great way to induce the feeling of pure happiness. That warm feeling the brain sends to your body when it is rewarding you. How is that done? Just read the following!
Click here or on the image to see it in full size.
 
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Blood Pressure Could Be Linked To A Stiffening Of The Arteries That Occurs With Age

About 90 percent of all high blood pressure cases cannot be explained by medical experts, a Norwegian University of Science and Technology news release reported.

"Our results suggest that arterial stiffness represents a major therapeutic target. This is contrary to existing models, which typically explain high blood pressure in terms of defective kidney function," says Klas Pettersen, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and first author of the study, recently published in PLOS Computational Biology.

High blood pressure can raise the risk of "heart failure, stroke and kidney disease," the news release reported.

When blood pressure travels from the aorta to the heart, sensors called baroreceptors, sense the stretching of the aortic wall and send signals to the nervous system; the higher the blood pressure the higher these signals are.

If the aorta stiffens (which generally happens in old age) it starts to lose its ability to sense the amount of blood pressure imposing pressure.

"With the stiffening of the wall that follows ageing, these sensors become less able to send signals that reflect the actual blood pressure. Our mathematical model predicts the quantitative effects of this process on blood pressure," Klas Pettersen, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and first author of the study said in the news release.

"If our hypothesis is proven right, arterial stiffness and baroreceptor signaling will become hotspot targets for the treatment of high blood pressure and the development of new medicines and medical devices," Stig W. Omholt from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who was the senior investigator of the research project, said in the news release.

The team hopes to show that the stiffening of the aorta causes the baroreceptors to misinform the nervous system, evoking an inappropriate response.

"If we are to succeed in developing predictive, preventive and participatory medicine envisioned by so many, there is no substitute for building much stronger transdisciplinary ties between the life sciences, the mathematical sciences and engineering across the whole spectrum of basic, translational and applied research. And mathematical models of the human physiology will be at the core of this development," Omholt said.

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