Studies that found a link between saturated fat and heart disease are more likely to get published than those that found no link — which might make it look like there’s a connection when there isn’t.

Studies that found a link between saturated fat and heart disease may be more likely to get published than those that found no link, which could make the overall picture look more uncertain than it really is.

We can’t be sure if saturated fat is good or bad for you because the studies are all over the place—some say one thing, others say the opposite, and the measurements aren’t very accurate.

The link between saturated fat, cholesterol, and heart disease might have been pushed by shady studies paid for by the sugar industry that didn’t tell the whole truth.

The idea that saturated fat causes heart disease might have started because scientists only shared part of the data — they published results from 7 countries that supported the link, but left out data from 15 others that didn’t show a connection.

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.