Who do you believe

Who do you believe

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal stated that a big study published in March in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine concluded that saturated fat does not cause heart disease. An online health publication defined saturated fat as “Saturated fats are those that become hard at room temperature. They are found mostly in animal-based foods such as meat, butter, milk, and cheese and in coconut oil, palm oil, and cocoa butter. Saturated fats should only be eaten in limited amounts because they harm blood vessels, which increases a person's risk for developing hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). Dr. Ancel Benjamin Keys was an American scientist who studied the influence of diet on health. In particular, he hypothesized that different kinds of dietary fat had different effects on health. He examined the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease and concluded that diets with saturated fat raise cholesterol and, as a result, cause heart attacks. Well it turns out that the Wall Street journal article points out a lot of flaws in Dr. Keys’ research in terms of the lifestyles and geographies of the people he studied. If I did a research study that found people who eat lots of red beef are inclined towards heart attack but forgot to mention that all of those same people were heavy smokers, that would be a pretty serious scientific whoops. I've done a number of recent stories that have the same ending. Who do you believe?
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