High-Fat Diets Are Worse Than Thought
February 18, 2009 by Peggy Rowland
Filed under Women's Health
If you’re one of the lucky ones who can eat whatever you want and still have normal cholesterol and weight, this new study may be a wake-up call for you.
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have shown that high-fat diets can inflame fat tissue surrounding blood vessels. This inflammation can possibly contribute to cardiovascular disease. The findings will be published in the Feb. 20 issue of the American Heart Association journal Circulation Research. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
“This is a warning to those who say there isn’t a problem because their weight and cholesterol levels are under control. Lipid profiles don’t hold all the answers,” said Dr. Neal Weintraub, a researcher on the study.
Researchers examined fat (adipose tissue) surrounding the coronary arteries of humans. They found these fat cells to be highly inflamed, and believe they could trigger inflammation of blood vessels, a component of atherosclerosis.
And this inflammation may not take long to develop. Researchers also discovered that the inflammation of fat tissues around the arteries of mice was increased by feeding them a high-fat diet for only two weeks. Researchers said that the diet fed to the mice is not unlike the diet many humans eat.
Do you avoid consuming a high-fat diet?
(Image via MorgueFile)
“Weintraub adds that the diet fed to the mouse models was not unlike the diets consumed by many Americans.”
Most Americans eat a high-fat, high-carb diet, which is generally considered bad whether you’re in the low-fat, low-carb, or balanced diet camp. You can’t just take a mouse’s diet, add fat to it, and then say that the results are caused purely by the added fat. If the mice were switched to a genuinely low-carb, high-fat diet, and inflammation set in, then, yeah, there may be something to it. But there are still other factors to consider, too.
From reading the article at Science Daily, I have no idea about the diet’s nutrient balance, or about those other factors that might influence any conclusions I might draw. I really wish that the important details of research like this were more easily accessible.
No, I’m not avoiding fat. I’m not avoiding carbs as much as I should, either, but that’s a matter of time and money.
Oh, and Hi! LTNS!