Researchers revealed high carbohydrate diets are more closely linked to heart disease and diabetes than high-fat.
New research suggests doubling or even tripling the amount of saturated fat in one's diet does not drive up levels in the blood. The findings also revealed increasing carbohydrates in the diet promoted an increase of levels of fatty acid in the blood, which can lead to diabetes and heart disease, The Ohio State University reported. The finding suggests saturate fats are unrightfully "demonized."
"It's unusual for a marker to track so closely with carbohydrate intake, making this a unique and clinically significant finding. As you increase carbs, this marker predictably goes up," said senior author Jeff Volek, a professor of human sciences at The Ohio State University.
The team noticed total blood levels of saturated fats went down in most study participants, despite being given controlled diets in which carbs were reduced. In the study the patients were fed six three-week diets that progressively increased in levles of carbs. The team observed levels of Palmitoleic acid, a fatty acid associated with unhealthy metabolism, went down when carbs were reduced and vice versa.
"When you consume a very low-carb diet your body preferentially burns saturated fat," Volek said. "We had people eat [two] times more saturated fat than they had been eating before entering the study, yet when we measured saturated fat in their blood, it went down in the majority of people. Other traditional risk markers improved, as well."
The findings suggest palmitoleic acid may be a biomarker to signal when the body is converting carbs into fat, resulting in what has been referred to as "metabolic mayhem."
"There is no magical carb level, no cookie-cutter approach to diet, that works for everyone," Volek said. "There's a lot of interest in personalized nutrition, and using a dynamically changing biomarker could provide some index as to how the body is processing carbohydrates."
The findings were published Nov. 21 in the journal PLOS ONE.
