Eating more fat in your diet doesn't seem to make you more likely to die from heart disease, according to long-term studies of nearly 90,000 people.

Scientific Claim

Higher intake of total dietary fat is not associated with increased risk of death from coronary heart disease in adult populations, based on data from seven prospective cohort studies involving 89,801 participants with 2,024 CHD deaths over a mean follow-up of 11.9 years.

Original Statement

“The RR from meta-analysis for total fat intake and CHD deaths was 1.04 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.10).”

From study:Evidence from prospective cohort studies does not support current dietary fat guidelines: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Evidence Quality Assessment

Claim Status

appropriately stated

Study Design Support

Design cannot support claim

Appropriate Language Strength

association

Can only show association/correlation

Assessment Explanation

The abstract reports a risk ratio with confidence interval crossing 1.0, indicating no significant association. The claim uses 'not associated' which correctly reflects observational data. No causal language is used. Based on abstract only - full methodology not available to verify

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

Evidence from prospective cohort studies does not support current dietary fat guidelines: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis

Human

2017 Dec

This big study looked at thousands of people over many years and found that eating more fat didn’t make them more likely to die from heart disease, so the idea that fat is bad for your heart isn’t backed by this evidence.

Contradicting (0)

No contradicting evidence found

Source Study

Evidence from prospective cohort studies does not support current dietary fat guidelines: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Score: 47

DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2016-096550

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