Key's diet-heart hypothesis re-evaluated

[bohm2]

This re-analysis of Keys diet-heart hypothesis has been on the news recently and thought it would be of interest to others:

Available evidence from randomized controlled trials shows that replacement of saturated fat in the diet with linoleic acid effectively lowers serum cholesterol but does not support the hypothesis that this translates to a lower risk of death from coronary heart disease or all causes. Findings from the Minnesota Coronary Experiment add to growing evidence that incomplete publication has contributed to overestimation of the benefits of replacing saturated fat with vegetable oils rich in linoleic acid.

Re-evaluation of the traditional diet-heart hypothesis: analysis of recovered data from Minnesota Coronary Experiment (1968-73)
http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246

Replacing butter with vegetable oils does not cut heart disease risk
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160412211335.htm

CBC Video:
Benefits of switch from saturated fat to corn oil for longer life challenged
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/saturated-fat-diet-heart-hypothesis-1.3532509

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Another example of factors correlated to good health not turning out to be causative of good health. Similarly, some recent clinical trials have shown certain drugs that raise "good cholesterol" (HDL) and lower "bad cholesterol" (LDL) have no effect on overall cardiovascular health (http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2016/04/04/cetp-finally-heads-to-the-trash-heap). Of course, there are other classes of drugs that do the same thing to HDL and LDL levels (but through a different mechanism) and do seem to improve cardiovascular health.