Reduction in heart diseases affected by the replacement of saturated fats with processed carbs

It is for sure that nutrition studies inclined to whipsaw—a lot— by informing you something that is good for your health and warning against it.

Lately, the news on dietary fat surely fell into this group. When doctors for years warned people about the dangers of too much saturated fat—the one present in red meat, dairy and fried foods—some studies gives the impression that people who cut back on these verboten foods did not possess any lower risk of heart problems than those who didn’t. That stimulated advice to tag along to butter over margarine, and not to worry a lot about fat.

Now, a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology describes that too much saturated fat is certainly damaging to the heart, but it also offers a clarification for the earlier confusing study results as well. If you cut out calories from saturated fat, the types of calories you exchange them with can be just as detrimental.

Led by Dr. Frank Hu from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the researchers examined data from two large populations: 84,629 women in the Nurses’ Health Study and 42,909 men in the Health Professionals Follow Up Study who were tailed from the 1980s to 2010. In the course of the nearly three decades of follow up, the contributors responded to queries regarding the food they ate and delivered information involving all types of heart-related events they experienced.

In general, people who consumed more saturated fat exhibited a higher risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those who ate less. Likewise, people who ate more polyunsaturated fats (the healthier fats in vegetable oils) and more whole grain carbohydrates suppressed the danger of heart disease compared to people who involved less of these nutrients in their diet.

Due to the elaborate nature of the food questions, the researchers were able to go deeper into the matter on the patterns of diet changes amid volunteers. For instance, as people reduced the number of calories they ate each day from saturated fat, Hu and his group were able to observe that the participants replaced these fats with carbohydrates: predominantly refined carbohydrates that are more easily transferred into fat. That subsidized to a cardio disease risk which was nearly equal to that from saturated fats. Therefore, it explained why previous studies were able to figure out little benefit to reducing saturated fat, since most people were inclined to replace them with equally unhealthy carbohydrates.

For those who substituted the saturated with better-for-you whole grains - the story was completely different. They displayed a lesser risk of heart disease compared to those who didn’t make the switch. Those who swapped 5% of their daily energy intake from saturated fat with healthier fats or whole grains pulled down their risk of heart events by anywhere from 9% to 25%. But no change was observed in heart disease risk for those who replaced 5% of saturated fat with refined carbohydrates, like starches. “The danger doesn’t soar up, but it also doesn’t decline, so you’re not doing yourself any favors,” stated Adela Hruby, a research fellow in the department of nutrition. Hruby is also the co-lead author of the paper who also said, “So you might as well just keep the butter there.”

The message is not to load up on saturated fat but to pay attention to what you’re swapping it with if you’re bringing variations in your diet. Cutting down on animal-based fats is a better move for your heart, but if you’re switching to carbohydrate-dense foods like starches, pastas and things made from refined flour, then you’re making the worst mistake which is as harmful to your heart as eating saturated fat.