It was found that there was no clear association between higher intake of saturated fats like butter and all cause mortality, coronary heart disease (CHD), cardiovascular disease (CVD), ischemic stroke or type two diabetes, but could not, with confidence, rule out increased risk for CHD death.
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“We were unable to find evidence of harm with saturated fat, but we believe that’s in large part owing to the limitations of the studies we reviewed”, he said.
De Souza, assistant professor in the department of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues assessed the potential link between saturated fat intake and each health outcome based on findings from three to 12 prospective cohort studies, in a population of 90,501 to 339,090 participants. They examined 41 primary reports of associations between saturated fats and health outcomes in prospective cohort studies published between 1981 and 2014.
Saturated fats are the kind of fat found in meat, milk, butter and cheese. Saturated fats were found by the researchers to generally not be associated with any of the diseases. That they are unhealthy, have no nutritional value, and may boost the risk of many diseases including death from all causes.
Eating butter is not associated with an increased risk of death and disease, however eating margarine is associated with a greater risk of death and disease, new research has shown.
The study confirms previous suggestions that industrially produced trans fats might increase the risk of coronary heart disease.
Among men, trans fatty acid intake declined between 1980 and 2009 from 2.9 percent of daily calories to 1.9 percent, according to a 2014 study (see Reuters Health story of October 22, 2014 here: reut.rs/1z0fHu4). The researchers also noted that industrial trans fat was consumed more than twice as much as ruminant trans fat. The analysis reviewed 50 studies of dietary fat and cardiovascular health, in what’s called a meta-analysis. And in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration has already committed to removing all artificial trans fats from the American food supply by 2018.
There is now enough evidence to shift focus from the amount of saturated fat in the diet to intake of specific food categories, Krauss said.
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The effects of saturated fat are hazy, yet the researchers did not promote a higher limit on people’s intake of saturated fats.
