Saturated fat lessens risk of heart disease in post-menopausal women
A new finding, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, is that eating saturated fat reduces the progression of cardiovascular disease in post-menopausal women. They call it "The American Paradox". It is the latest in a long line of "paradoxes" — French, Greek, Spanish, etc — where people in countries that eat lots of fat — and saturated fat at that — don't get the heart disease that American doctors think they should. How dare these people make a mockery of American hypotheses?
It never ceases to amaze me that, with all the evidence over the last fifty years that saturated fats are NOT unhealthy, American doctors and, it must be admitted, others influenced by American ideas, cannot seem to put two and two together to make four.
Below is the abstract from that study:
Dietary fats, carbohydrate, and progression of coronary atherosclerosis in postmenopausal womenDariush Mozaffarian, Eric B Rimm, and David M HerringtonABSTRACT Background: The influence of diet on atherosclerotic progression is not well established, particularly in postmenopausal women, in whom risk factors for progression may differ from those for men. Objective: The objective was to investigate associations between dietary macronutrients and progression of coronary atherosclerosis among postmenopausal women. Design: Quantitative coronary angiography was performed at baseline and after a mean follow-up of 3.1 y in 2243 coronary segments in 235 postmenopausal women with established coronary heart disease. Usual dietary intake was assessed at baseline. Results: The mean total fat intake was 25 +/- 6% of energy. In multivariate analyses, a higher saturated fat intake was associated with a smaller decline in mean minimal coronary diameter (P = 0.001) and less progression of coronary stenosis (P = 0.002) during follow-up. Compared with a 0.22-mm decline in the lowest quartile of intake, there was a 0.10-mm decline in the second quartile (P = 0.002), a 0.07-mm decline in the third quartile (P = 0.002), and no decline in the fourth quartile (P <0.001); P for trend = 0.001. This inverse association was more pronounced among women with lower monounsaturated fat (P for interaction = 0.04) and higher carbohydrate (P for interaction = 0.004) intakes and possibly lower total fat intake (P for interaction = 0.09). Carbohydrate intake was positively associated with atherosclerotic progression (P = 0.001), particularly when the glycemic index was high. Polyunsaturated fat intake was positively associated with progression when replacing other fats (P = 0.04) but not when replacing carbohydrate or protein. Monounsaturated and total fat intakes were not associated with progression. Conclusions: In postmenopausal women with relatively low total fat intake, a greater saturated fat intake is associated with less progression of coronary atherosclerosis, whereas carbohydrate intake is associated with a greater progression. Am J Clin Nutr 2004;80: 1175?84. COMMENT Now there's a surprise! This is what I have been preaching now for over 33 years — and what I have been castigated and vilified for saying! "Among postmenopausal women with established CHD, greater saturated fat intake was associated with less progression of coronary atherosclerosis over an average follow-up of 3 y, whereas polyunsaturated fat and carbohydrate intakes were associated with greater progression." In an editorial about this paper, Drs Robert H Knopp and Barbara M Retzlaff state:
"It is an article of faith that saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol
and accelerates coronary artery disease, whereas unsaturated
fatty acids have the opposite effect." |
Last updated 6 November 2004
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