When Will Low Fat Diets Go Away?

by James B. LaValle 06/03/2008
For the average person, the changes we’ve seen as to how diet contributes to heart disease have been interesting, but for many people they have also been exhausting and confusing.
For two decades we were taught that diets high in fat and cholesterol contribute to heart disease; this teaching has been dubbed the “diet-heart hypothesis.” Low fat diets were recommended by every large health organization, and people adopted the low fat way of life. There was only one problem — heart disease rates did not drop. They continued to climb.
Over the years, the diet-heart hypothesis has been crumbling one wall at a time. First, we learned that only one type of fat clearly contributes to heart disease, and that some oils even have health benefits. So trans-fats are out and olive oil is in.
Then, newer studies showed that eating dietary cholesterol does not have a significant impact on raising cholesterol in the blood, which is still considered a risk factor for heart disease.1 So we are “allowed” to eat eggs and shrimp again. So far, most of you are still on board and rolling with the punches.
In the meantime, low-carb diets held some serious surprises. People did not want to believe it at first, but low-carb diets showed they do indeed lower risks of heart disease and diabetes. Longer-term studies have even shown no deleterious effects from them, despite the higher animal protein, saturated fat, and cholesterol intake.2-4
In fact, low-carb diets are the primary reason that the whole saturated fat and cholesterol ideas have pretty much collapsed. Low-carb diets have been studied now from nearly every angle, and what is consistently seen is that low carb diets — even though they are higher in saturated fat and cholesterol — lower risk of heart disease and even diabetes, a disease that greatly increases risk of heart disease.
What concerns me however, is that despite evidence to the contrary, and despite the urging of the most prominent researchers in this area, the American Heart Association (AHA) still has not changed its dietary guidelines; they still recommend lowering one’s intake of saturated fat and cholesterol to lower risk of heart disease.5
Because we have not yet had a paradigm change on this by the AHA, most practitioners hold back from recommending a low-carb diet and continue to instead recommend a low-fat diet. And this creates a lot of confusion for the average person who is just trying to decide what they should really be doing.
While all of this may be tiring for you to keep track of, the progression of information has actually been extremely helpful in defining what REALLY causes heart disease — and that is inflammation. Therefore, anything that increases inflammation in the body, like insulin, caused by high-carb diets is the real risk factor for heart disease.
When it comes to diet and heart disease, consumers need to rest assured in the fact that the best diet for prevention of heart disease is one that is lower in carbs, but high in dietary antioxidants. The only fat to concern yourself with, is trans-fat. I no longer advise lowering intake of cholesterol.
But what about saturated fat? I can tell you that clinically, I do not find saturated fat to be a factor in elevated cholesterol, even “bad” LDL cholesterol. In fact, almost all of my clients experience improved lipid profiles by lowering carb intake, not saturated fat.
Over the past few years, I have seen conflicting headlines and messages about saturated fat. As the one remaining factor in the debate on diet and heart disease, saturated fat deserves our time and attention.
In my next article I will discuss where the science is now, and what we will need to keep our eye on when it comes to saturated fat.
References
1. Fernandez ML. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2006;9:8-12.
2. Joshipura K, et al. Public Health Nutr. 2008 Apr 15:1-7.
3. Halton TL et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Feb;87(2):339-46.
4. Luscombe-Marsh, N et al. Am J Clin Nutr 2005 81:773-779.
5. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1510.
[Ed. Note: Jim LaValle is an educator, clinician and industry consultant in the field of integrative healthcare. He is a licensed pharmacist, board certified clinical nutritionist and doctor of naturopathic medicine with more than 20 years clinical practice experience in the field of natural therapeutics and functional medicine. Named one of the "50 Most Influential Druggists" by American Druggist for his work in natural medicine, LaValle has authored 13 books, including his latest, Cracking the Metabolic Code. For more information, click here.]