Saturated fat and LDL

The first part of the diet-heart hypothesis is that saturated fats raise blood levels of LDL cholesterol.

However, despite this idea being so deeply ingrained in the minds of laypeople and health professionals alike, there is no clear link. Some short-term feeding trials do in fact show that increased saturated fats raise LDL in the short term.

However, the effect is weak and inconsistent and many of these studies have been criticized based on methodological flaws (26, 27, 28).

If saturated fats were such a dominant factor in LDL, the association should be strong and consistent in observational studies, but it's not.

In fact, plenty of studies don't support an association between saturated fat consumption and total LDL (29, 30, 31).

There are populations in the world that eat a massive amount of saturated fat, such as the Masai in Africa who drink lots of fatty milk and the Tokelauans who eat lots of coconuts (32, 33, 34, 35).

Both of these populations have low cholesterol and an absence of heart disease.

BOTTOM LINE:If saturated fat really raises LDL, then the effect is weak and inconsistent. Saturated fat is certainly not a dominant factor in LDL levels.

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