What type of fats increase the risk for heart disease?
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Dr. Dean Ornish answered:Saturated fats increase your risk of heart disease, but trans-fatty acids may increase it even more. A study in The Lancet of almost seven hundred Dutch men followed for ten years found that just a 2 percent increase in trans-fatty acid intake caused a 25 percent jump in the risk of heart disease.
According to Dr. Meir Stampfer, “My colleagues and I from the Harvard School of Public Health estimate, from laboratory and epidemiological studies, that between 72,000 and 228,000 heart attacks could be prevented each year in America if industrially produced trans fats were eliminated from our diet.”
What you eat plays an important role in your risk of heart disease independent of its effects on your fasting blood cholesterol level. Studies have shown that there is a surge in triglycerides and harmful cholesterol fractions after you eat a meal high in saturated fat and cholesterol, and it is not affected by cholesterol-lowering drugs. This surge has a genetic component, as it is abnormally high and prolonged in people with heart disease and their children.
Find out more about this book: The Spectrum: A Scientifically Proven Program to Feel Better, Live Longer,...
Saturated fats increase your risk of heart disease, but trans-fatty acids may increase it even more. A study in The Lancet of almost seven hundred Dutch men followed for ten years found that just a 2 percent increase in trans-fatty acid intake... More
