Carbs, not fat, cause heart disease says Scientific American

It reports on a big meta-analysis of studies, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last month involving nearly 350,000 people which found no association between saturated fatSaturated fats should be avoided wherever possible as they increase the amount of cholesterol in the blood and increase the risk of developing heart disease…. and heart disease. Instead, eating more carbs increases risk. While high fatThere are many different types of fats; polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, hydrogenated, saturated and trans fat. The body requires good fats (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated) in order to… diet do raise cholesterol, as Professor Meir Stampfer from Harvard School of Public Health points out “total cholesterol is not a great predictor of risk.” In a study he published in the New England Journal of Medicine those with the lowest carb intake, eating high fat, lost twice as much weight as those eating a low-fat diet. These are just two of many studies that clearly show that eating too much sugar and refined carbohydrates, or too many carbs in total, best indicated by the ‘glycemic load’ of your diet, is a much more important health factor, and predictor of weight gain, cardiovascular risk and diabetes, than intake of fat. As Professor David Ludwig says ““If you reduce saturated fat and replace it with high glycemic-index carbohydrates, you may not only not get benefits—you might actually produce harm. The next time you eat a piece of buttered toast, he says, consider that “butter is actually the more healthful component.” M.Moyer, Carbs against Cardio, Scientific American, May 2010