Our resident dietitian Dr CHARLOTTE ROWLEY on new insights into saturated fats and their impact on our health.
For many years, saturated fat has been pigeonholed as a major contributor to heart disease, however some recent evidence suggests that not all saturated fats are created equal.
While we can get multiple types of fat from the foods we eat, saturated fat is typically found in animal foods. This can include the fat on meat, or chicken skin. It’s also in some plant foods, such as coconut and palm oils.
Why are saturated fats considered unhealthy?
Saturated fats are the ‘unhealthy’ fats because they can increase total cholesterol, including the more harmful LDL cholesterol. Currently, we consider cholesterol levels through HDL (“good”) cholesterol and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, with the ratio of these being used to predict our risk of cardiovascular disease.
Your GP might use a ratio of “good” versus “bad” to predict your risk of cardiovascular disease. But it’s not always that straightforward. There are sub-categories of the good and bad groups, each of which appear to have different impacts on heart health. Some of those groups may have a neutral impact.
Nutrition science is quite young compared to other sciences, which means we are learning new things about food and its interaction with our bodies at a rapid rate.
If consuming saturated fat only increases the “neutral” LDL subcategories, consuming saturated fat may have a minimal impact on cardiovascular risk level. Our current nutrition guidelines still recommend restricting saturated fat to less than 10% of our total daily energy intake, and this is supported by recent studies.
In 2020, a Cochrane review recommended that saturated fat restriction should continue, noting that reduced saturated fat is associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. This review also noted that reductions in saturated fat may take two years to influence your cardiovascular risk level. Because studies of this length can be difficult to conduct, this may have limited the information available.
What does all this mean for our diet?
One thing we are learning about nutrition is that there’s no one eating pattern that suits everyone. While we wait for more information, here are some recommendations:
Limit processed fats as much as possible. These are likely still unhealthy, regardless of natural saturated fats. Processed saturated fats can be found in foods such as hot dogs, fried foods, bacon and deli meats. Butter also appears to have a negative impact on health, though other dairy foods may be beneficial.
Track how any change to your fat consumption might be affecting your heart health. Through your GP, you can track cholesterol levels and blood pressure, and you can also ask for additional tests such as coronary calcium scores.
Eat plenty of fruit, vegetables, wholegrains and dairy. This ensures you are getting a balanced diet with plenty of vitamins and minerals to support your body.
Don’t be surprised if you hear more about saturated fat in the next few years. Nutrition science is quite young compared to other sciences, which means we are learning new things about food and its interaction with our bodies at a rapid rate. With new technologies, we can understand the processes of digestion and metabolism like never before, and our understanding will continue to evolve.
