HEALTHY DIETS AND SCIENCE: An increase in carbohydrates and decrease in saturated fats leads to a rise in heart attack risk

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

Thursday 19 July 2012

An increase in carbohydrates and decrease in saturated fats leads to a rise in heart attack risk

This study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2010 Jun;91(6):1764-8

Study title and authors:

Intake of carbohydrates compared with intake of saturated fatty acids and risk of myocardial infarction: importance of the glycemic index.

Jakobsen MU, Dethlefsen C, Joensen AM, Stegger J, Tjønneland A, Schmidt EB, Overvad K.

Department of Clinical Epidemiology Aarhus University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark. muj@dce.au.dk muj@dce.au.dk

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20375186

The study aimed to investigate the risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack) associated with a higher intake from carbohydrates and a concomitant lower intake from saturated fats. The study included 53,644 participants who were followed for 12 years.

The study found that for every 5% increase in carbohydrate consumption and concomitant 5% decrease in saturated fat consumption there was a 4% increase in the risk of a heart attack.