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butter It’s one of life’s great pleasures, but it’s been served for a long time a little bit of worry It has health effects due to the saturated fat present in it.
But new research shows that for many people, reducing their saturated fat intake does not reduce their risk of death.
For decades, saturated fat, which is naturally present in red meat and dairy products like cheese and yogurt, has gained a reputation as a diet villain.
They have been linked to blocked arteries and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Heavy consumption has traditionally been viewed as one of the major contributors to poor cardiovascular health, with saturated fat seen as a major target in public health campaigns and nutritional guidelines.
Recognizing that “small amounts of fat are an essential part of a healthy, balanced diet,” the NHS advises that men should not eat more than 30 grams of saturated fat a day, and women are better off consuming smaller amounts, no more than 20 grams.
But a major meta-analysis of 17 studies, involving a total of 66,337 participants, of how saturated fat reduction affects health outcomes, found that only “high-risk” individuals benefited from reduced consumption of these foods.
“For individuals at low cardiovascular risk, reducing or modifying saturated fat intake appears to have little or no benefit over a 5-year period,” the research team said. writing in medical journal History of Internal MedicineConcluded.
However, they added: “In individuals at high cardiovascular risk, low to moderate-certainty evidence was found for a significant reduction in mortality and major cardiovascular events.”
In an editorial published alongside the research, Dr. Ramon Astruc and Dr. Rosa Lamuela-Raventos of the University of Barcelona suggested that the dial of perception on saturated fat has shifted from completely negative to even having health benefits that are now underappreciated.
“Time is changing,” he has writtenQuoting Bob Dylan, before clarifying what he meant specifically in relation to the changing debate over saturated fat consumption.
“The perception of the health effects of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) has changed from strictly harmful to ‘intermediate’ effects, most recently, including possibly protective effects on cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases for some subtypes of SFAs,” they said.
They argue that the “diet-heart hypothesis” behind concerns about saturated fat consumption emerged in the mid-20th century, and rapidly gained popularity, “and spread the concept that SFA cause heart disease by increasing serum cholesterol levels”.
He argues that the hypothesis is “based on weak evidence of association and not causation”.
“Indeed, maintaining a high intake of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, along with consumption of short-, medium- and very long-chain SFA, as well as odd-chain SFA, may provide beneficial benefits in the context of an overall healthy and balanced diet,” they concluded.
Current NHS advice states: “Too much fat in your diet, especially saturated fat, can raise your cholesterol, increasing your risk of heart disease.
“Current UK government guidelines recommend reducing all fats and replacing saturated fats with some unsaturated fats.”
However, experts have advised caution. Professor Neeta Forouhi, a population health and nutrition expert at the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the study, said the analysis did not examine health outcomes beyond ten years – the time frame that is commonly used in heart-disease risk models.
“For this reason, it is too early to change the current dietary guidelines in the UK recommending saturated fat intake to less than 10 per cent of total energy intake.” Match,