Saturated Fats are not so bad after all, says study

The findings of a new research have indicated that the much hated (and avoided) saturated fats do not contribute towards raising the level of fatty acids on the blood, as was previously thought. Carbohydrates play a much greater role on doing that, it has now been confirmed. Those cutting down on their saturated fat intake for health reasons or for weight loss will, therefore, benefit much more by reducing the amount of carbohydrates in their diet.

According to senior author Prof. Jeff Volek, the study, “challenges the conventional wisdom that has demonized saturated fat and extends our knowledge of why dietary saturated fat doesn’t correlate with disease.”

Long derided, saturated fats have been linked to a wide range of health problems like heart disease, high blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and weight gain. The new findings suggest that we can go an and increase their intake (to the extent of doubling or tripling it) without raising the level of fats in blood.

On the other hand, carbohydrates were found to be linked to higher levels of fatty acid which, in turn, puts people at greater risk for diabetes and heart disease.

“The point is you don’t necessarily save the saturated fat that you eat, and the primary regulator of what you save in terms of fat is the carbohydrate in your diet,” senior author Jeff Volek of Ohio State University, said in the report.

The fatty acid called palmitoleic acid, which is associated with “unhealthy metabolism of carbohydrates that can promote disease,” went down with low-carb diets and gradually increased as carbs were re-introduced, the study said.

An increase in this fatty acid indicates that a growing proportion of carbohydrates is being converted into fat instead of being burned by the body, the researchers said.

“When you consume a very low-carb diet your body preferentially burns saturated fat,” Volek said.

“We had people eat two times more saturated fat than they had been eating before entering the study, yet when we measured saturated fat in their blood, it went down in the majority of people,” he said.

The finding “challenges the conventional wisdom that has demonized saturated fat and extends our knowledge of why dietary saturated fat doesn’t correlate with disease,” Volek added.

“People believe ‘you are what you eat,'” says Prof. Volek, “but in reality, you are what you save from what you eat. The point is you don’t necessarily save the saturated fat you eat. And the primary regulator of what you save in terms of fat is the carbohydrate in your diet.” So now if you are trying to eat healthy or trying to shed some weight, you know what you need to cut down from your diet chart instead of blaming saturated fats unnecessarily.