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.

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.

There’s a hint that eating more saturated fat might raise the risk of dying from heart disease, but the data is too messy and uncertain to say for sure.

Eating more saturated fat from meat, butter, or cheese doesn’t clearly make people more likely to die early or get heart disease or diabetes, but the science isn’t strong enough to be sure.