Eliminate Carbs, Not Saturated Fats, from Your Diet To Lower Cholesterol

Akshay Naik 30 July 2020

Life

People with high cholesterol levels have traditionally been advised to minimise their consumption of saturated fats to reduce risk of heart disease. But now, disputing these traditionally prescribed dietary changes, a new study has found no evidence to actually support these claims.

An international team of experts on heart disease and diet, including five cardiologists, reviewed the dietary guidelines for people with familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic disorder that causes people to have cholesterol levels two to four times higher than an average person. Their findings have been collated and published in the scientific journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.

For decades, organisations, including the American Heart Association, have suggested that people with hypercholesterolemia should avoid eating food from animal sources, such as meat, eggs and cheese, and also tropical oils. High cholesterol levels can mean fatty deposits in blood vessels which can eventually grow making it difficult for enough blood to flow through the arteries. Often, these deposits can break suddenly and form a clot that causes a heart attack or stroke.

Surprisingly, the researchers behind the new report have found no advantageous changes in high-cholesterol patients who abstained from saturated fats rich foods like meat, eggs, and cheese—in contradiction with conventional wisdom. Instead, they recommend following a low-carb diet for any person with increased risk of heart disease, such as those who are overweight, hypertensive and diabetic.

“For the past 80 years, people with familial hypercholesterolemia have been told to lower their cholesterol with a low saturated fat diet. Our study showed that a more ‘heart healthy’ diet is one low in sugar, not saturated fat,” said lead author Prof David Diamond, a heart disease researcher at the University of South Florida.

The findings from this study are also consistent with another research paper recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology which provided strong evidence that food which raises blood sugar, such as bread, potatoes and sweets, should be minimised, rather than tropical oils and animal-based food.

Comments

User

Ramesh Popat

5 years ago

so, old saying favoring milk and ghee was right perhaps!
(cow milk/ghee better for sure! and further if cream is
removed after boiling milk-much better! we may have superb
home made ghee from it)

Newme

5 years ago

In the last decade we have seen drastic increase in heart problems even for people who do not eat heavy foods and lead relatively healthy lifestyle. It is alleged that refined Sunflower oil people consume is actually an oil extracted from petroleum refineries. One reason given is while the Sunflower area under cultivation has reduced but the Sunflower oil production has increased.
Common man has neither time or energy to investigate this inference.