American Heart Association: Let ’ s create dietary policy based on the flimsiest of science

This study was indeed mentioned by the AHA panel. But, as many conventional dietary thinkers have done in past, they dismiss the lack of any reduction in cardiovascular events, cancers, or weight as a fluke. Given the lack of real evidence that reducing saturated or total fat reduces cardiovascular risk, the panel then resorts to the weakest source of data of all: observational epidemiological studies, the sorts of studies that rely largely on questionnaires on what participants ate, a study design that is widely accepted to almost never establish cause-effect relationships, only potential associations or hypotheses. The deficiencies in such studies have been widely debated (here is a terrific summary by journalist Gary Taubes). Note that it is this very same study design, for example, that led doctors to prescribe Premarin because in observational studies this form of horse estrogens was shown to reduce breast, endometrial, and other cancers, as well as cardiovascular disease, causing the drug to be the #1 top selling drug for many years—until the proper prospective, blinded study demonstrated that, not only did Premarin not reduce cancer or heart disease, it increased the incidence of both. This occurred, of course, after millions of women had been exposed to the drug. (More about the Premarin debacle here.) This has been the problem that has plagued observational epidemiological studies all along, but that does not stop the scientists who embrace such study design (t...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Undoctored Wheat Belly Lifestyle aha american heart association cholesterol epidemiology polyunsaturates saturated fat Source Type: blogs