Last Wednesday, I attended the 2016 Dairy Nutrition Symposium, and let’s just say that I was stumped pretty hard.

I’ve known for a while that saturated fat isn’t as bad as we depicted them to be a couple of years ago. However, I came out the symposium baffled and skeptical about what I was once taught about fat.

Here is why.

The presentation was given by Dr. Andrew Samis from Queen’s University.

The Highlights

• According to a 2012 Cochrane review, reducing fat intakes has no effect on total mortality and cardiovascular mortality. Moreover, cutting down fat intakes shows “no clear health benefits” on cardiovascular-related
• Current guidelines for cardiovascular health recommend replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fats. Yet, the current evidence is not strong enough to support this statement. In fact, it is unknown whether this substitution results in health benefits, neutral effects, or health deterioration. (I was left open-mouthed in this segment.)
• It is well accepted that high consumption of trans fat increases the risk of heart disease.
• Eating eggs or butter does not increase the risk of heart disease.

Some of you might say that that the presentation is biased since the Dairy Nutrition invited the speaker. I mean, who would hire someone to BS about their products, right?

My Thoughts

The hard part when reviewing studies is to be able to translate the findings into clinical practice. In light of these results, you’re probably wondering what you should and should not eat, like me.

Well, here’s the breakdown:

• The results presented are related to the effect of saturated fat on cardiovascular disease only. This means that the effect on obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other diseases was not taken into consideration.
• Despite the current shift in status, unsaturated fat still outweighs saturated fat regarding health benefits. SO YES, I STILL BELIEVE IN EMPHAZING ON UNSATURATED FAT RATHER THAN SATURATED FAT.
• Food seldom contains just one type of fat, and it is unlikely for the diet to consist of only one type of it either. Rather than focusing on nutrients, we would be wiser to focus on foods themselves.