This isn’t an attempt to convince anyone that saturated fat is good or bad for you. I’m generally curious. I feel the worlds been mis-lead on the benefits of eating a saturated fats, based on the fact cholesterol has been widely misunderstood.
Opinions are welcome!
We have even more evidence that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats is good. While dietary cholesterol isn’t strongly linked to blood levels, saturated fat is linked to blood cholesterol levels. We have even more evidence that high blood ApoB cholesterol levels are bad.
Replacing saturated fats with simple carbs doesn’t show any real difference.
edit: Here are some decent videos going into detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBFe1QattAU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GM6ObTo30M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoUdAdCPYU0
When you say “cholesterol has been misunderstood”, do you mean dietary cholesterol or serum cholesterol (i.e. LDL cholesterol, HDL, etc.)?
From the most rigorous summation of the evidence on the effect of replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fats from vegetable oils in randomised controlled trials - the recent Cochrane review:
> We included 15 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) (16 comparisons, 56,675 participants), that used a variety of interventions from providing all food to advice on reducing saturated fat. The included long‐term trials suggested that reducing dietary saturated fat reduced the risk of combined cardiovascular events by 17% (risk ratio (RR) 0.83; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.70 to 0.98, 12 trials, 53,758 participants of whom 8% had a cardiovascular event, I² = 67%, GRADE moderate‐quality evidence). Meta‐regression suggested that greater reductions in saturated fat (reflected in greater reductions in serum cholesterol) resulted in greater reductions in risk of CVD events, explaining most heterogeneity between trials.
The same result appears in the prospective cohort studies too, as long as you keep in mind that
Replacement matters - replacing saturated fat with refined carbohydrates doesn’t appear to affect cardiovascular risk, but replacing with whole grains, MUFAs, or PUFAs does.
The relationship between saturated fat and CVD appears to be non-linear - in particular, risk increases when one crosses a threshold at around 8-10% of calories, or ~20g/day (see e.g. Figure 6 of the Cochrane review and stratification of the various cohort studies by intake).
Many cohort studies adjust for serum cholesterol/LDL cholesterol/hyperlipidemia then find no relationship between saturated fat and CVD, which given that cholesterol appears to be the moderator variable linking saturated fat to CVD (see again the Cochrane review and their meta-regression), it is in fact expected that adjustment for this variable nullifies the effect. It would be like ‘proving’ that guns don’t kill people by adjusting for the number of bullets fired. (My interpretation based on the wider literature is that total cholesterol (and indeed LDL-cholesterol) is a correlate for LDL particle count and apoB-containing lipoproteins more broadly, for which there is strong and consistent evidence of them being the causal factor in atherosclerosis as opposed to simply being a risk marker.)
This video by the channel Nutrition Made Simple probably explains much of this better than I am: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBFe1QattAU.
The science supporting limits on dietary cholesterol and saturated fats had not changed. This is why dietary guidelines have not changed for these nutrients.
There is perhaps a bit more nuance with different types of saturated fats. Dairy fat (other than butter) and the saturated fat in chocolate is not as bad as the saturated fat in red meat but they are all still worse than MUFAs and PUFAs
The attack on saturated fats and cholesterol was orchestrated by the same companies who sell the general population industrialized seed oils for profits. The world is ran off profits not health and well being. Big Pharma has monopolized the health industry while only getting people sicker with their toxic pharmaceutical drugs, simply for profits. They deem natural medicine and healing “pseudoscience” and only teach doctors how to diagnose and prescribe toxic drugs that further your health problems.
This is from the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics Evidence Analysis Library, published 2/1/23:
- Amount of Saturated Fat (Level 2B): In adults living with or without cardiovascular disease, healthcare professionals may suggest reduced saturated fat intake within an individualized
healthy dietary pattern. Reduced saturated fat intake was associated with decreased total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and cardiovascular disease events; however, no significant associations were found with mortality (all-cause, cardiovascular disease, or coronary heart disease), coronary heart disease events, or cerebral vascular accidents.
- Replacement of Saturated Fat (Level 1B): In adults living with and without cardiovascular disease, healthcare professionals should recommend replacing dietary saturated fat intake with dietary polyunsaturated fat intake. Replacement of dietary saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat promotes healthy eating patterns and reduces total cholesterol and coronary heart disease events; however, there was no significant effect on all-cause, cardiovascular disease, or coronary heart disease mortality.
- Sources of Saturated Fat (Level 2C): Healthcare professionals may prioritize reduction of the amount of saturated fat over reduction of specific sources of saturated fat foods within
individualized healthy dietary patterns when providing nutrition education to reduce cardiovascular disease risk. Low certainty of evidence demonstrates that a variety of dairy products are not associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease; however, reduction of red meat and processed meat is associated with reduced cardiovascular disease risk.
The “Blue Zones” are populations of the world with long life expenctancies and low disease rates. They have been well researched for many years and the consistent finding is that lower saturated fat intake is one fo the primary reasons for those regions strong health. There are occasional studies that try to refute this but I question their backing / ethics.
Proteinaholic is a good book to read about this. It has many references to studies of the blue zones. His main premise is to target the excessive consumption of protein in western society, but ironically his arguments are even stronger against saturated fat.
No, it’s still just as bad. So is dietary cholesterol. Listen to government recommendations and stay the hell away from anything on the internet for nutrition. There are a ton of people who give extremely dangerous advice. The carnivore and keto tribes in particular love to parrot this idea that saturated fat and cholesterol not only aren’t harmful but are GOOD for you. Absolutely insane.