Monday Nov 14, 2016 (foodconsumer.org) -- Many nutritionists or dieticians may tell you that fat is an important dietary component for humans.  But a new study suggests that not all types of fat are created the same and actually eating saturated fat and trans fat may increase risk of premature death.

Previous studies have linked saturated fat and trans fat to elevated risk for cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases like diabetes mellitus.  The current study finds that men and women who ate high amounts of saturated fat and trans fat were 9% and 13% more likely to die from all causes, respectively.

The study was based on data from the Nurses’ Health Study (1980-2012) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2012).  At baseline, men and women were free from cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes mellitus.
  
The study shows that consumption of saturated fat was associated with non-significant higher risk for cardiovascular disease mortality and consumption of trans fat was linked to a 20% increased risk for cardiovascular disease mortality.
 
Dietary intakes of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats were both inversely associated with the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality.

The study also finds replacing 5% of energy from saturated fat with equivalent amount of energy from polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat was associated with 26% and 13% reduced risk for total mortality respectively.  Such a replacement was also linked to lower risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease, cancer and neurodegenerative disease.

Interestingly, the study finds that intake of n-6 polyunsaturated fat, particularly linoleic acid was inversely associated with death risk from most major causes while consumption of marine n-3 polyunsaturated fat was associated with only moderately lower risk for total mortality.  

Note that it is generally believed that high intake of n-6 polyunsaturated fat particularly when intake of n-3 polyunsaturated fat is lower is considered an unfavorable factor.   Keep in mind that thermal processing of polyunsaturated fat can lead to the formation of trans fat, a fact that may not have drawn enough attention from food consumers.

The study concludes that high intake of saturated fat and trans fat was associated with increased risk of total mortality while high intake of polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat was inversely associated with mortality.

Polyunsaturated fat is found largely in vegetable oils, monounsaturated fat is in olive oil and peanut oil while n-3 polyunsaturated fat is found in cold water fish like salmon. (David Liu)


Dietary fats may also affect the risk of many diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and chronic diseases like diabetes mellitus.

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Dietary fat linked to elevated risk of breast cancer - Foodconsumer.org

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Trans fat, omega 6 fat linked to breast cancer

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High-fat diet boosts risk for obesity, diabetes

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