NOT NEW >>> BUT PERHAPS NEW TO YOU!

This is from Dr Michael Eads blog on Health and Nutrition, a great blog that i subscribe to that actually writes about health and nutrition on a regular basis. he is super into high protein, low carb diets and lifestyle, and he is fabulous at reviewing current literature and research as you will see in the following study. One of my biggest pet peeves is people towing the old party line on the fat causes obesity, heart disease and ultimately death! TIME TO REEDUCATE OURSELVES FOLKS!



Fat consumption and early death
4. August 2005, 10:16

The results of a large scale epidemiological study of risks posed by
the consumption of dietary fat on total mortality and on mortality
from both cardiovascular disease and cancer appeared in the August
issue of the Journal of Internal Medicine. The results show that
neither women nor men have increased mortality related to the
consumption of total fat or saturated fat.

I did some manipulation of the data myself with some surprising
results, but before looking at my work, let's look at what the study
data showed.

The authors do a good job of laying out the history of the fat or
lipid hypothesis, which posits that excess intake of dietary fat,
especially saturated fat, increases the risk of early death from all
causes and specifically from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

From the 1950s through to the 1970s evidence accumulated from
various epidemiological, ecological and clinical trials supporting the
theory that diets rich in animal fats and poor in unsaturated
vegetable fats produced unfavourable risk profiles for cardiovascular
disease and cancer. Results from these studies founded most of the
dietary guidelines by amongst others the World Health Organization and
American Heart Association, the basis of which is still used in
reviewed editions today.

Over the last decades evidence from large-scale epidemiological
studies has been emerging, partly defying the previously believed
hypotheses, with voices rejecting the fat-disease hypotheses becoming
more prominent. Most researchers today agree on total fat intake not
being a risk factor for cardiovascular disease or cancer. [My italics:
remember this line the next time you hear or read that fat causes
heart disease or cancer.] The role of dietary fat in the development
and treatment of obesity has also been under question. The largest
bulk of evidence still pointing towards dietary fats influencing
disease development, involves increased risk of various cancers and
cardiovascular disease in relation to a high intake of trans fatty
acids and saturated fats, as well as lower risks with diets rich in
unsaturated fats, especially polyunsaturated fats. All the same, many
studies have showed negative findings or even opposite results.

In spite of conflicting evidence, most institutions and
governmental authorities issuing dietary guidelines still encourage
limiting the percentage of calories from total fat in the diet,
usually to

What the researchers were looking for:

The aim of this study was to examine whether total fat intake,
saturated, monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat intake, or the ratio
between unsaturated and saturated fat intake, are independent risk
factors for prospective all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality
and cancer mortality, within a large population-based cohort.

The research team recruited 28,098 middle-aged subjects from
Malmo, the third largest city in Sweden, between 1991 and 1996. After
extensive evaluation the study group was divided in quartiles of fat
consumption by sex. In other words, the groups of men and women were
divided into four groups (quartiles) based on the amount of their fat
consumption, with the group at the low end being the quarter of either
the women or the men who consumed the least fat, and the quarter on
the high end composed of those consuming the most fat.

Each group was then broken down further into subgroups depending
upon the specific fats consumed, i.e., saturated, monounsaturated, or
polyunsaturated.

As this group of subjects aged, a number of them died. The
researchers compared the cause of death to fat intake. Since these
people were middle-aged when the study began and only 10-14 years have
passed, the people who died were not particularly aged, thus the title
of the study: "Dietary fat intake and early mortality patterns."

The data show:

Total mortality:

No significant difference in RR [relative risk] was observed
between quartiles of saturated fat intake, polyunsaturated fat intake,
or the ratio between mono- or polyunsaturated fat and saturated fat
intake for women.

For men, a significantly lower RR of total mortality was
observed in the third quartile of total fat intake (RR 0.77; CI 0.62
0.95, P = 0.017), with RR for the second and fourth quartiles also

In other words no difference in total mortality as a function
of overall fat intake or particular type of fat intake.

Cardiovascular mortality:

For women, no significant difference was observed between
quartiles of total fat or saturated fat intake.

For men, a significant trend towards lower cardiovascular
mortality in upper quartiles of total fat intake was observed (P =
0.028) with the RR for men in the fourth quartile being 0.65. No
difference was observed between quartiles of saturated fat intake for
men.

So, there was no difference in early cardiovascular mortality
in women related to the consumption of total or saturated fat. In men,
those who ate the most fat had a 65% lesser chance of dying than those
who ate the least fat. There was no difference in early cardiovascular
deaths related to the consumption of saturated fat.

Cancer mortality:

Women in the fourth quartile of total fat intake (46.1% of
daily energy from fat) had a significantly higher RR of dying from
cancer (RR 1.46; CI 1.04 2.04, P = 0.029). This was mostly
attributable to a high RR for women in the fourth quartile of
monounsaturated fat intake (RR 1.47; CI 0.92 2.34, P = NS). [I don't
know how they can make that claim since P showed the finding to have
not reaches statistical significance.] Saturated fat intake, and the
ratio between monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat and saturated
fat, did not show any significant effect on cancer mortality for
women.

For men, significant differences in cancer mortality
between quartiles were not revealed for any type of fat.

Women in the quartile consuming the most fat had a 1.46%
greater chance of dying early from cancer as compared to those in the
lowest quartile, but there was no increase in mortality from saturated
fat. I find the fact that these women had greater risk of dying from
cancer, yet no increased risk of dying earlier from all causes, which
would imply that the increased fat decreased their chances of dying
from something else not studied.

Also interesting was the fact that the authors speculated that
this increased risk of early mortality was maybe related to the trans
fats included in the diets of the women in the highest-fat quartile.

I found a couple of interesting items when I massaged the data
myself. Both men and women the highest quartile of fat consumption
consumed a greater number of calories than those in the lowest
quartileâ€"18% more in the case of the women, 16% more for men. Yet
both the men and the women in the highest-fat quartile weighed the
same (actually a tiny bit less, but not a statistically significant
difference) as the subjects in the lowest-fat quartile.

When looking at total fat consumption the researchers looked
at fat as a percentage of total caloriesâ€"for what idiotic reason I
don't know; I guess because that's what everyone else looks at. When I
recalculated total fat and saturated fat in absolute amounts, the
study results become even stronger as an indictment of the lipid
hypothesis.

Men in the highest-fat quartile consumed 63% more fat (139
grams verses 85) than men in the lowest-fat quartile, and consumed a
whopping 82% more saturated fat (62 grams vs 34) than those in the
lowest quartile.

Women in the highest-fat quartile ate 76% more fat (111 grams
vs 63) than those in the lowest quartile, and ate 92% more saturated
fat (50 grams vs 26) than did their lowest-quartile counterparts.

And the highest-fat quartiles of both sexes consumed more
protein and less carb then did those in the lowest-quartile. Maybe
that's why they ate more and weighed less.

This one statement from the discussion section of the paper
should lay the lipid hypothesis of heart disease to rest:

Men in the fourth quartile of total fat intake, receiving
almost 50% of their total energy intake from fat, had the lowest
cardiovascular mortality.

But I'm sure it won't because the many researchers out there
who have based their careers on the lipid hypothesis along with all
the pharmaceutical companies that make billions of dollars on
cholesterol-lowering medicines won't let it go without a fight.