Low Fat Diets Questioned by scientists

One of our common health beliefs- that a diet high in animal fats causes heart disease, has just been put to the test. Epidemiological studies do not support the notion that a diet high in animal fat causes heart disease. It has been reported that although northern Indians consume 19 times more fats and also smoke a lot more, it is their southern counterparts who die an average of 8 years earlier.

In addition, the Masai people (Kenya) probably have the highest intake of animal fat in the world, but studies have shown that abnormalities that showed on electrocardiography were far less frequent than in Americans and raised atherosclerotic lesions were rare.

The correlation between animal fats consumption and heart disease is further dismissed with facts. In 33 countries, an increased intake of animal fat was followed by an increased coronary mortality in 30 time periods, but in 23 other time periods an increased fat intake was followed by a decreased mortality. Furthermore, detailed investigations of the diet of more than 150,000 participants were gathered and compiled from 21 studies. The results did not find any evidence supporting the current view.

What is even more significant is that systematic reviews of the various tests did not reveal any connection between fat intake and heart disease. In these trials, a fat-free diet did not guarantee an escape from death from heart disease. Researchers claiming the validity of the diet-heart idea do so by excluding negative trial results from their analyses.

Source: British Medical Journal, January 26, 2002;324:238