We have been told long time ago: Eat less fat and cholesterol to reduce your risk of a heart attack. Many of us eat less high-fat red meat, eggs and dairy and replace them with more calories from fruits, vegetables and especially carbohydrates.

 

Nearly four decades later, the results are in: the experiment was a failure. We cut the fat, but by almost every measure, Americans are sicker than ever. The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes increased 166% from 1980 to 2012. More than a third of the country is now obese. There's an overwhelmingly strong case to against the idea that cut back on fat to lose weight and prevent heart disease. 

 

People cut fat in their diet to cut calories, actually ended up eating more, major from carbohydrates. We have known for some time that fats found in vegetables like olives and in fish like salmon can actually protect against heart disease. Now it's becoming clear that even the saturated fat found in a medium-rare steak or a slab of butter has a more complex and, in some case, benign effect on the body than previously thought. 

 

It's incontrovertibly true that saturated fat will raise LDL-cholesterol levels, which are associated with higher rates of heart disease. But cholesterol is more complicated than that. Saturated fat also raises levels of the so-called good HDL cholesterol, which removes the LDL makes saturated fat a cardio wash. 

 

Scientists now know there are two kinds of LDL particles: small, dense ones and large, fluffy ones. The large ones seem to be mostly harmless -- and it's the levels of those large particles that fat intake raises. Carb intake, meanwhile, seems to increase the small, sticky particles that now appear linked to heart disease.

 

 

 

 

References   "Don't Blame Fat"  by Bryan Walsh      June 23 TIME