HEALTHY DIETS AND SCIENCE: Increased saturated fat consumption and lower rates of heart disease and stroke

The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Tuesday, 20 April 2010

Increased saturated fat consumption and lower rates of heart disease and stroke

This post includes a summary of a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol 61, 1351S-1359S
Study title and authors:

How could changes in diet explain changes in coronary heart disease mortality in Spain? The Spanish paradox

L Serra-Majem, L Ribas, R Tresserras, J Ngo and L Salleras

Department of Public Health, University of Barcelona, Spain.

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/61/6/1351S

This paper reviewed and compared trends in coronary heart disease and stroke mortality in Spain from 1966 to 1990 and changes in food consumption.

The review found:
(a) Rates of heart disease deaths fell.
(b) Rates of stroke death fell.
(c) There was an increase in meat consumption.
(d) There was a decrease in carbohydrate consumption.
(e) Fat and saturated fat intakes increased.

This review shows that an increase in consumption of saturated fat and meat, together with a decrease in consumption of carbohydrate led to lower rates of heart disease and stroke.