06/08/2017
One nutritional ‘’fact’’ that we have all been told is that saturated fat is unhealthy and causes problems with our heart such as cardiovascular disease and even strokes. But is saturated fat such a bad guy after all?
WHAT IS SATURATED FAT?
As you are probably aware, fat is a macronutrient like protein and carbohydrates. Fat has the highest amount of energy per gram, with nine calories.
Fats are comprised of fatty acids that come in three forms: polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated. These get their name from the number of double bonds they have. Saturated fats have no double bonds, monounsaturated have one, and polyunsaturated have two.
Fat found in foods contain a combination of the different fatty acids mentioned above. Some examples of foods that are high in saturated fats are fatty animal meats, dairy products such as cream and butter and coconut oil.
WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE SATURATED FAT?
Saturated fats bad name comes from last century when heart disease was running rampant. Everyone was looking for the smoking gun that caused this epidemic. Heart disease became the number one cause of death.
Saturated fat was found to increase cholesterol in the blood and cholesterol, as we know, causes heart disease. Despite there being no evidence that saturated fat was the guilty culprit for the heart disease influx, the following assumption was made:
Saturated fat increase cholesterol. Cholesterol increase = heart disease. So then, it was established that heart disease was caused by saturated fat and this was taken on as nutritional truth.
Nutritional myths die hard.
SO, IS SATURATED FAT BAD?
Given the fact that saturated fat was accused of such a heinous crime, a lot of research has been done on it and its effects on heart disease. There are several reviews of the studies on this topic.
One review of 21 studies found that there was no significant evidence to show that saturated fat directly caused heart disease.
Another review of 76 studies with a total of 643,226 participants also found the same: that there is no significant evidence to suggest that heart disease is directly caused by saturated fat.
Although, many studies show that replacing saturated fat consumption with unsaturated fats such as polyunsaturated and monounsaturated, is better for heart health in the long run. This isn't to say that saturated fat is bad, it merely means that replacing it with unsaturated fat is better.
THE VERDICT?
The whole ''saturated fat is evil'' thing is something that has been carried from the 70's when it was thought to be the cause of the spike in heart disease. This turned into the standard dietary advice of the time and has carried on through to today, where it is still commonly believed.
This is extremely unfortunate, as the result of all the research on the topic, over the years, shows definitively that there is no significant evidence to show that saturated fat can cause heart disease directly.
We as humans have been consuming saturated fats from animal meats for thousands and thousands of years.
Although, replacing some saturated fat with unsaturated fat in your diet may make you even healthier!
