High-Fat Diets Raise Heart Disease Risk

High-Fat Diets Raise Heart Disease Risk. Fats are healthy for you, but too much can increase your risk of heart disease. Saturated fats, found in fatty cuts of meat, butter, palm oil, and cheese, raise your LDL (bad)?cholesterol.

Replacing saturated fats with monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats lowers your cholesterol. Choose foods that contain healthy fats from seeds and plants, such as extra virgin olive oil, avocado, canola, safflower, peanut, soy, and sesame.

Saturated Fat

Saturated fats?are mainly found in foods such as meat, butter, lard, and coconut oil. They are considered unhealthy because they can raise blood cholesterol levels, which increases a person’s risk of heart disease and stroke.

High-Fat Diets Raise Heart Disease Risk. In the United Kingdom, dietary guidelines suggest that men eat no more than 30g of saturated fat and women no more than 20g per day.

However, UK adults consume 12.5% of their calories from saturated fat, which is more than double the recommended amount.

The American Heart Association recommends a diet that gets no more than 5% to 6% of calories from saturated fat (see equation). For people consuming 2,000 calories, this equates to 11-13 grams of saturated fat per day.

While some research suggests that a moderate amount of saturated fat may be beneficial for overall health, most experts agree that it should be limited. Saturated fats can be replaced with healthier, unsaturated fats. This may help lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart disease.

Trans Fat

Trans fat, also known as?trans fatty acids, is not needed by the body and raises blood cholesterol levels. Moreover, they can increase inflammation and cause increased formation of blood clots.

They have been linked to a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other health problems. They can also cross the placenta and lead to birth defects in newborn infants.

High-Fat Diets Raise Heart Disease Risk. Artificial trans fats are by-products of a chemical process called hydrogenation. This alters the degree of saturation of vegetable oils to improve shelf life and taste.

They are found in a number of processed foods such as baked goods, doughnuts, muffins, and pies. It is best to limit how much of these foods you eat.

Choline

Cholesterol is a waxy substance that helps cells form protective layers, supports your liver’s production of bile, and promotes the growth of certain hormones. It also helps your body produce a hormone called vitamin D.

It’s found in your liver and in dietary sources such as meat, eggs, and dairy products. High levels of cholesterol can raise your risk of developing heart disease and stroke.

The American Heart Association recommends a diet low in saturated fat and trans fat. You can avoid these by eating a well-balanced diet that includes plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein.

A high-fat?diet disrupts?the bacterial balance in your gut, which can lead to harmful substances building up in your blood and arteries. New research involving UC Davis Health suggests that this can happen by weakening the intestinal lining’s ability to prevent oxygen leakage into the intestines. The results suggest that a drug may be able to help counteract these effects and prevent heart disease.

TMAO

TMAO is produced in the gut from the metabolism of two dietary precursors,?L-carnitine, and phosphatidylcholine, and has been linked to an increased risk for heart disease. It’s also a key component of the plaque build-up that causes heart attacks and strokes in the arteries.

A study in rats that have a genetic predisposition to high blood pressure (spontaneously hypertensive rats) found that treatment with a low dose of TMAO increased their blood TMAO levels four times higher than normal. This raised their risk of heart and kidney damage, as well as high blood pressure.

In addition, a recent study in humans found that serum TMAO levels predicted incident cardiovascular events in people with metabolic syndrome, an inflammatory condition that causes abdominal fat deposits and increases the risk for heart disease and other serious conditions. After adjusting for other risk factors, transferrin and HDL-C (the so-called good cholesterol) were the strongest predictors of high TMAO.