Scientists found a link between eating saturated fat and heart disease by leaving out data from different countries that didn't fit their idea.

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.

The Seven Countries Study selectively reported data from only seven of 22 analyzed countries to falsely imply a causal relationship between saturated fat intake and cardiovascular disease, omitting data from 15 countries showing no association.

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.

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.

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.