Saturated fat advice 'unclear'

Swapping butter for a sunflower spread may not lower heart risk, say British Heart Foundation researchers.

Contrary to guidance, there is no evidence that changing the type of fat you eat from "bad" saturated to "healthier" polyunsaturated cuts heart risk.

They looked at data from 72 studies with more than 600,000 participants.

Heart experts stressed the findings did not mean it was fine to eat lots of cheese, pies and cakes.

There has been a big health drive to get more people eating unsaturated fats such as olive and sunflower oils and other non-animal fats - instead.

But research published in Annals of Internal Medicine, led by investigators at the University of Cambridge, found no evidence to support this.

Total saturated fat, whether measured in the diet or in the bloodstream as a biomarker, was not associated with coronary disease risk in the 72 observational studies.

Trans fats were strongly and positively associated with risk of heart diseases. These artificial fats, found in many processed food items and margarine spreads, should continue to be regulated and avoided, say the study authors.

More on this latest story here. Please note the British Heart Foundation receives very serious money from Unilever (Flora Margarine) who even Unilever says is a dead duck and are looking to off load.

An extract from the original paper here.

Background: Guidelines advocate changes in fatty acid consumption to promote cardiovascular health.

Purpose: To summarize evidence about associations between fatty acids and coronary disease.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, Science Citation Index, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials through July 2013.

Study Selection: Prospective, observational studies and randomized, controlled trials.

Data Extraction: Investigators extracted data about study characteristics and assessed study biases.

Data Synthesis: There were 32 observational studies (530 525 participants) of fatty acids from dietary intake; 17 observational studies (25 721 participants) of fatty acid biomarkers; and 27 randomized, controlled trials (103 052 participants) of fatty acid supplementation. In observational studies, relative risks for coronary disease were 1.02 (95% CI, 0.97 to 1.07) for saturated, 0.99 (CI, 0.89 to 1.09) for monounsaturated, 0.93 (CI, 0.84 to 1.02) for long-chain ω-3 polyunsaturated, 1.01 (CI, 0.96 to 1.07) for ω-6 polyunsaturated, and 1.16 (CI, 1.06 to 1.27) for trans fatty acids when the top and bottom thirds of baseline dietary fatty acid intake were compared. Corresponding estimates for circulating fatty acids were 1.06 (CI, 0.86 to 1.30), 1.06 (CI, 0.97 to 1.17), 0.84 (CI, 0.63 to 1.11), 0.94 (CI, 0.84 to 1.06), and 1.05 (CI, 0.76 to 1.44), respectively. There was heterogeneity of the associations among individual circulating fatty acids and coronary disease. In randomized, controlled trials, relative risks for coronary disease were 0.97 (CI, 0.69 to 1.36) for α-linolenic, 0.94 (CI, 0.86 to 1.03) for long-chain ω-3 polyunsaturated, and 0.89 (CI, 0.71 to 1.12) for ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementations.

Limitation: Potential biases from preferential publication and selective reporting.

Conclusion: Current evidence does not clearly support cardiovascular guidelines that encourage high consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids and low consumption of total saturated fats.

Primary Funding Source: British Heart Foundation, Medical Research Council, Cambridge National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre, and Gates Cambridge.

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