The diet-heart hypothesis (the basis for the introduction of statin medications) has again been annihilated by two recent studies.
For about the last 60 years we have been told that eating foods containing saturated fat raises cholesterol levels and this increased cholesterol level causes plaques to form in the arteries - referred to as the lipid hypothesis or the diet-heart hypothesis.
Meta-analysis after meta-analysis has failed to show any link between dietary saturated fat and heart disease. And people who have heart attacks have repeatedly been shown to have normal or average cholesterol levels - not high cholesterol. Now, two more studies have recently been published to yet again destroy the diet-heart hypothesis and the basis for the use of statins - which are estimated to be taken by 100 million people around the world.
The first study, published in the British Medical Journal, examined the validity of the diet-heart hypothesis by recovering and analysing previously unpublished data from randomised control trials. The study found that replacing saturated fat for vegetable oils did lower cholesterol levels, but this did not reduce the amount of heart disease or heart attacks. In fact, for each 30 mg/dL (0.78 mmol/L) reduction in cholesterol there was a 22% greater risk of death.
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