Surprising Research ! Link Between Saturated Fats And Heart Disease Questioned

The government is reviewing its dietary guidelines on saturated fat following growing concerns that it’s been unfairly “demonized” in the past.

Under current recommendations, the government advises that foods high in saturated fat such as butter, cream, and cheese make up just 10% of the total calories a person eats per day.

This is largely because saturated fats were previously linked to a person having an increased risk of heart disease.

But in the past few years, two studies have found there is no link between saturated fats and heart disease and several experts have said eating more saturated fats could actually be beneficial for our health.

Saturated Fats Good or Bad?

According to The Times, minutes from the saturated fats working group of the scientific advisory committee on nutrition (SACN) say the decision was made to re-examine government advice on saturated fats “in the context of recent meta-analyses that have reported no significant associations between saturated fats and cardiovascular disease”.

Food Standards Scotland also requested a review.

Speaking to the paper, lead cardiologist Aseem Malhotra said: “I don’t think there is any good evidence that eating saturated fats causes cardiovascular disease and there should not be any limit. We should instead base the official advice on the type of foods people should be eating.

“Saturated fats has been wrongly demonized because of poor science. The evidence is accumulating that sugar is the No 1 dietary culprit driving cardiovascular disease.”

The new review will look at the consumption of saturated fats in relation to overall mortality rates, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer.

The news of the review comes after a report from the National Obesity Forum (NOF) and the Public Health Collaboration released last month questioned the advice given in the government’s official Eatwell Guide.

The report claimed that “the continued demonisation of omnipresent natural fat” was fuelling the obesity crisis, as some of the most nutritious foods available – such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, nuts, seeds, olive, avocados – all contain saturated fats.

It advised the public to eat more fats and cut the amount of carbohydrates they eat in order to reduce their risk of obesity and diabetes.

But the report was met with controversy, with The British Dietetic Association calling the advice “potentially dangerous” while a spokesperson from Public Health England slated it as “irresponsible”.

The new review of saturated fats is set to be published next year.

Source: huffingtonpost.co.uk

For more latest obesity, nutrition, and weight loss research visit this page: Latest Studies and Research

Does Salt Make You Fat ? New Research About Salt And Weight Gain

Many people are wondering about the link between salt and weight gain (or weight loss) so they are asking numerous questions: Can Salt Prevent You From Losing Weight? Can Eating Salt Prevent Weight Loss? Does salt make you fat? Fat and salt are a common and appetitive combination in food; however, the effect of either on food intake is unclear. Fat taste sensitivity has been negatively associated with dietary fat intake, but how fat taste sensitivity influences the intake of fat within a meal has, to our knowledge, not yet been investigated.

The goals of this new study were to investigate the effects of both fat and salt on ad libitum food intake and, second, to investigate the effects of fat taste sensitivity on satiation responses to fat and whether this was affected by salt.

Forty-eight healthy adults, 16 men, and 32 women, aged 18–54 years old, with a BMI between 17.8 and 34.4, were recruited to participate in this study. They attended 4 lunchtime sessions after a standardized breakfast. Meals consisted of elbow macaroni with sauce; sauces were manipulated to low-fat/low-salt, low-fat/high-salt, high-fat/low-salt and high-fat/high-salt.

Also read: Obesity Could Cause 670,000 New Cancer Cases By 2035

The study found that Salt increased food and energy intakes by 11%, irrespective of if the fat content was high or low. The fat content of the meal didn’t result in people eating more food by weight, but because of its greater energy density, that meant more kilojoules were eaten.

People who were considered to be sensitive to the taste of fat ate less of the high-fat meal, but only if it was also low in salt. Ratings of hunger before, and fullness after, each meal were similar and unaffected by the meal composition.

The results of this research suggest that salt promotes passive overconsumption of energy in adults and that salt may override fat-mediated satiation in individuals who are sensitive to the taste of fat. This means that the saltiness of food is being able to influence passive over-consumption for foods high fat. 

In a time when there are too many discretionary food choices available that meet the criteria for being high in fat and salt, then this research helps explain why such food could be an important driver of excess eating and subsequent weight gain. So if you still asking yourself, does salt make me fat ? does salt prevent weight loss ? in the light of this study, I would say yes definitely.


Besides that, Salt has been proved to be linked to high blood pressure and heart disease as well. 

Salt, Sodium, Health - Infographic

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Have You Ever Heard About Fat Virus ? Virus In Chicken Linked To Obesity

Recently, there has been research examining the connection between poultry consumption and weight gain. One study out of the Netherlands examining about 4,000 people, correlated chicken consumption with weight gain. Another study followed 89,000 people in four other countries and found that animal protein intake was associated with long-term weight gain, and poultry was the worst, with 40 percent more weight gain than red meat or processed meat.

What makes poultry so bad? Yes, chickens are fatty these days because of the way we’ve genetically manipulated them—up to ten times more fat and calories than they used to have—but one bizarre theory postulated that it might be due to an obesity-causing chicken virus. In one study, one in five obese humans tested positive to the chicken virus SMAM-1, with those exposed to the chicken virus averaging 33 pounds heavier than those testing negative.

SMAM-1 was the first chicken virus to be associated with human obesity, but not the last. The original obesity-causing chicken virus SMAM-1 was able to effectively transmit obesity from one chicken to another when caged together, similar to a human adenovirus Ad-36, a human obesity-associated virus first associated with obesity in chickens and mice. Ad-36 spreads quickly from one chicken to another via nasal, oral or fecal excretion and contamination, causing obesity in each chicken. This, of course, raises serious concerns about Ad-36-induced adiposity in humans.

The easiest way to test this hypothesis is to experimentally infect humans with the virus. However, ethical reasons preclude experimental infection of humans, and so, the evidence will have to remain indirect. In the absence of direct experimental data, we must rely on population studies, similar to how researchers nailed smoking and lung cancer. About 15 percent of Americans are already infected with Ad-36; so, we can follow them and see what happens. That’s exactly what a research team out of Taiwan did. They followed 1,400 Hispanic men and women for a decade and found that not only were those exposed to the virus fatter than those who were not, but also over the ten years, those with a history of infection had a greater percentage of body fat over time.

Also read: In Fight Against Obesity, The U.S. Is Failing Women

Most studies done to date on adults have found a connection between exposure to Ad-36 and obesity, and all studies done so far on childhood obesity show an increase in the prevalence of infection in obese children compared to non-obese children. We’re now up to more than a thousand children studied with similar findings. Obese children who tested positive for the virus weighed 35 pounds more than children who tested negative.

The virus appears to both increase the number of fat cells by mobilizing precursor stem cells and increase the accumulation of fat within the cells. If we take liposuction samples of fat from people, the fat cell precursors turn into fat cells at about five times the rate in people who came to the liposuction clinic already infected. Fat taken from non-infected people that were then exposed to the virus start sucking up fat at a faster rate, potentially inducing obesity without increasing food intake.

Just as Ad-36 can be transmitted horizontally from one infected chicken to another in the same cage, subsequently causing obesity in each chicken, this same virus is also easily transmitted among humans, raising the question as to whether at least some cases of childhood obesity can be considered an infectious disease. Researchers publishing in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity speculate that this animal adenovirus may have mutated to become a human adenovirus capable of infecting humans and causing obesity.

Video Transcript : 

0:00 think twice before blaming yourself or someone else for being overweight

0:04 a new study suggests a common childhood virus could be the culprit

0:08 researchers found that children exposed to add no virus 36 an infection that

0:12 causes short-term gastrointestinal and respiratory symptoms

0:16 wait an average of 52 pounds more than children who were never infected

0:20 researchers believe this fat virus increases the body's fat cells and makes

0:24 it harder for the body to break down mature fat cells later

0:27 the result is that people affected by the virus store more fat overall

0:31 so go easy on the next overweight person you see diet and exercise may not work

0:36 as well for them as they do for you

From: nutritionfacts.org

For more latest obesity, nutrition, and weight loss research visit this page: Latest Studies and Research

Related Tags: Virus In Chicken Linked To Obesity, Poultry Virus Linked to Obesity, Fat Virus, Adenovirus, SMAM-1 Virus Chicken, Obesity Virus