“The people who were eating low saturated fats were eating a lot of junk food carbohydrates,” Sacks said. Trading bad fat for bad carbs doesn’t reduce cardiovascular disease, he said. “You wouldn’t tell people, ‘Hey reduce your sat fat and replace it with sugary soft drinks or donuts.’” You’d tell them to replace it with unsaturated oils, whole wheat bread, vegetables, nuts or beans, Sacks said.
The publicity surrounding the study and others has shaped public perception about saturated fats, partly reflecting the way nutrition studies are reported by news media, said Sacks.
“One of the real problems in transmitting health information is that generally people who are writing about it don’t look into what’s come before,” he said. The media also don’t pay much attention to new studies that support or extend current dietary recommendations. “The overall effect has misled the public on the science of dietary fats,” he said.
People are also quick to believe trends that aren’t supported by science, he said. A prime example is coconut oil, widely touted for its health benefits. “I just don’t know” who is pushing it, but it’s not scientists, Sacks said. It may be driven by manufacturers looking to profit, or some countries’ economic dependence on coconut oil, he said.