High saturated fat meat diet lowers risk of heart disease compared to low fat diet

This study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2015 Jul 15. pii: ajcn109116

 

Study title and authors:

Diets with high-fat cheese, high-fat meat, or carbohydrate on cardiovascular risk markers in overweight postmenopausal women: a randomized crossover trial.

Thorning TK, Raziani F, Bendsen NT, Astrup A, Tholstrup T, Raben A.

Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, Denmark tkt@nexs.ku.dk.

 

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26178720

High levels of HDL cholesterol and apo A-1 are associated with a lower risk of heart disease.

This study explored the effects of high saturated fat cheese or meat based diets, compared to a low fat diet, on heart disease markers. The study included 14 overweight postmenopausal women who consumed each of the following three diets for two weeks. (All diets contained the same amount of calories.)
(i)  High-cheese (96-120-g) diet.
(ii) High-fatty meat group (contained the same amount of saturated fat as the high-cheese diet.)
(iii) Low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet (contained lean meat and more carbohydrates than the other diets.)

The study found:
(a) The high-cheese diet led to a 5% increase in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels compared to the low-fat, high carbohydrate diet.
(b) The high-cheese diet led to a 8% increase in apo A-1 levels compared to the low-fat, high carbohydrate diet.
(c) The high-fatty meat diet led to a 8% increase in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels compared to the low-fat, high carbohydrate diet.
(d) The high-fatty meat diet led to a 4% increase in apo A-1 levels compared to the low-fat, high carbohydrate diet.

Thorning concluded: "Diets with cheese and meat as primary sources of saturated fat cause higher HDL cholesterol and apo A-I and, therefore, appear to be less atherogenic than is a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet".