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 Over the course of about seven years, diets with roughly 35 percent
of calories from fats were tied to a lower mortality rate than diets
with about 60 percent of calories from carbohydrates.
"What we are suggesting is moderation as opposed to very low and
very high intakes of fats and carbohydrates," said Mahshid Dehghan
from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Dehghan and colleagues write in The Lancet that cardiovascular
disease is a global epidemic, with 80 percent of the burden being
found in low- and middle-income countries.
The World Health Organization currently advises people to get no
more than 30 percent of energy from fats and to avoid saturated fats
found in things like animal products. Those recommendations are
based on data from North America and Europe, however.
The new data are drawn from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology
(PURE) study, which recruited people ages 35 to 70 in 18 countries
between 2003 and 2013.
The researchers had dietary and other information from 135,335
people who were followed for roughly seven years.
During the study period, the researchers identified 5,796 deaths and
4,784 cardiovascular events like strokes and heart attacks among the
study population.
When the researchers separated people into five groups based on
carbohydrate consumption, they found that people who ate the most
carbohydrates were 28 percent more likely to die from any cause
during the study than those who ate the least.
When people were divided into five groups based on how much fat they
consumed, those who consumed the most fat - of any kind - were about
23 percent less likely to die during the study than those who ate
the least. The findings were consistent no matter what type of fat
was consumed.
"We are hoping that dietary guidelines are reconsidered in light of
the new findings," Dehghan told Reuters Health.
Guidelines could relax restrictions on fat while focusing on
carbohydrate intake, for example.
A second analysis from the PURE study also suggests that the
benefits of eating fruits and vegetable aren't limitless.
WHO guidelines suggest five servings of fruits, vegetables or
legumes each day, according to coauthor Victoria Miller, who is also
with McMaster University.
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Those guidelines, again, are mostly based on evidence from North
America and Europe. In other parts of the world, five servings of
fruit each day may be too expensive.
"Our findings show the lowest risk of death was among people who ate
three to four servings with little additional benefit beyond that
range," said Miller.
If dietary guidelines were adjusted to reflect a smaller recommended
amount, she told Reuters Health, it would be more achievable and
more people would meet that goal.
Miller also emphasized that people who are meeting or exceeding the
daily goal of fruits, vegetables and legumes shouldn't take the
findings as a license to eat less of those foods.
"We don’t want to tell people who are eating more than the
recommendation to eat less," she said. "That’s not the message."
Along with existing evidence, the new research suggests the biology
of people around the world is similar when it comes to diets, said
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Tufts Friedman School of
Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston.
"When viewed in the context of all the other evidence, it paints a
pretty consistent picture," said Mozaffarian, who wasn't involved
with the new study.
He told Reuters Health that people should increase good fats,
increase the consumption of good foods that give rise to life - like
fruits - and not worry too much about total or saturated fats.
"I think we really have to revisit the continued strong focus on fat
rather than thinking of carbs and food quality," said Mozaffarian.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2wm5fQz, http://bit.ly/2wmvAhm, http://bit.ly/2wm5hYH
and http://bit.ly/2wm8Z4j The Lancet, online August 29, 2017.
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