The demonisation of dietary fats and saturated fat: villain or hero? Episode #346

Is saturated fat good or bad? But doesn’t it cause cardiovascular disease? And what about the guidelines? On this week’s episode, Dr. Zoë Harcombe (@zoeharcombe) joins BJSM’s Daniel Friedman (@ddfriedman) to discuss the takeaways from The BMJ’s Food For Thought conference 2018 (https://www.bmj.com/food-for-thought) and the demonisation of dietary fats. Zoë has a PhD in public health nutrition. The full title of her thesis is: “An examination of the randomised controlled trial and epidemiological evidence for the introduction of dietary fat recommendations in 1977 and 1983: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis“. She researches in the fields of nutrition, diet, dietary advice, diet-related health and obesity and writes and talks about these topics daily - http://www.zoeharcombe.com/ In this 30 minute conversation, Zoë discusses:        The strength of evidence in nutrition research        Facts about dietary fats        Our current understanding of saturated fat        Does saturated fat cause cardiovascular disease?        Are universal dietary guidelines feasible?   Further reading: Forouhi, Nita G., et al. "Dietary fat and cardiometabolic health: evidence, controversies, and consensus for guidance." BMJ361 (2018): k2139. https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2139 Harcombe, Zoë. "Dietary fat guidelines have no evidence base: where next for public health nutritional advice?." Br J Sports Med 51.10 (2017): 769-774. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/51/10/769 Harcombe, Zoë, Julien S. Baker, and Bruce Davies. "Evidence from prospective cohort studies does not support current dietary fat guidelines: a systematic review and meta-analysis." Br J Sports Med 51.24 (2017): 1743-1749. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/51/24/1743.info Harcombe, Zoë, et al. "Evidence from randomised controlled trials does not support current dietary fat guidelines: a systematic review and meta-analysis." Open Heart 3.2 (2016): e000409. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4985840/ Harcombe Z US dietary guidelines: is saturated fat a nutrient of concern? Br J Sports Med Published Online First: 14 August 2018. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2018-099420 https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2018/08/14/bjsports-2018-099420 Malhotra, Aseem, Rita F. Redberg, and Pascal Meier. "Saturated fat does not clog the arteries: coronary heart disease is a chronic inflammatory condition, the risk of which can be effectively reduced from healthy lifestyle interventions." (2017): bjsports-2016. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/51/15/1111