Saturated Fatty Acids: A new viewpoint What Does the Science Say About Fats & Oils in the American Diet?
Mozaffarian provided a history of the study of the diet-heart relationship which has held as conventional wisdom the following “equation”: total fat/saturated fat àserum total and LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol àcoronary heart disease. This long-term theory is based on a combination of ecologic studies, biomarker studies and animal experiments. Similarly, the relationship between lifestyle and obesity, based on similar data, and summarized as: total fat/energy density àenergy consumption and energy expenditure àAadiposity.
But with advances in nutritional science, Mozaffarian identified a number of dietary constituents besides total fat and saturated fatty acids (SFA) – both whole foods and ingredients – that impact either positively or negatively, a variety of parameters which may lead to heart disease (Figure 1). In addition, new clinical results point to a number of lifestyle variables which can impact, again directly or indirectly, obesity (Figure 2).