More Support for Bacon, Saturated Fat Is Not Associated With Heart Disease

Dietary fat, especially saturated fat continues to be demonized.  Many health and nutrition organizations/websites continue to recommend people to limit saturated fat intake because it has been suggested that it raises cholesterol and your risk of heart disease.  But, it you follow this blog you know that I don't feel that way.  Several months ago, I wrote the The Exoneration of Bacon: Saturated Fat Is Healthy blog posting.  Essentially, providing a lot of support for my stand that saturated fat is not deleterious for your health.  In fact, saturated fat is healthy and removing from your diet (especially replacing it with carbohydrates or trans fats) is even worse. 

More support for my stance that saturated fat does not raise your risk of heart disease or stroke and is an important part of your diet was recently published in an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition article.  The authors followed over 58,000 Japanese men and women aged 40-79 for 14 years.  They found no association between saturated fat intake and heart disease and an inverse relationship between saturated fat intake and stroke.  That is, the lower the dietary saturated fat intake, the higher your risk of stroke! 

I was explaining to a client that a diet higher in carbohydrate, especially refined carbohydrates and sugars, negatively affects your blood cholesterol profile (raises tryglycerides, and lowers HDL).  While more dietary fat raises your total cholesterol numbers somewhat (your level is more so determined genetically), total cholesterol does not raise your risk of heart attack or death (it even says this in the fine print in the statin ads). 

Enjoy your bacon, but pass on the bagel!