People’s cholesterol levels react differently when they swap out saturated fats in their diet, and this difference might be why studies can’t agree on whether eating more saturated fat increases heart disease risk.

People’s cholesterol levels react differently when they swap out saturated fats in their diet, and this might be why studies can’t agree on whether eating more saturated fat increases heart disease risk.

Multiple large-scale meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies demonstrate no statistically significant association between dietary saturated fat intake and incidence of coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease.

Eating foods with saturated fat, like butter or meat, doesn't seem to raise your risk of heart disease or dying from it, based on the studies reviewed.

If you're at risk for metabolic problems, swapping butter or fatty meats for olive oil or avocados doesn't drop your 'good' cholesterol as much as swapping them for bread or sugar.

Even when researchers accounted for how many total calories people ate or how much other fats they consumed, the link between saturated fat and heart disease still didn’t show up.