1. Correlation is not transitive as you seem to assume (the claim is a) sat fats corr cholesterol, and b) cholesterol corr to heart disease, therefore c) sat fats corr heart disease, therefore d) sat fats cause heart disease) . A correlated to B and B correlated to C does not even mean A is correlated to C, let alone that A causes C.
2. When you go looking for solid evidence for saturated fats causing heart disease—as I have—it just isn’t there.
What seems to have happened is that the field was for many years dominated by one man Ancel Keys who had a hunch that saturated fat was the culprit. He then fell prey to the usual cognitive biases, e.g. confirmation bias, and failed to update his views based on evidence.
Unfortunately the mania against saturated fats has let to a large uptake in intake of carbs in particular sugars (which Keys said was better than SF at least on one occasion), and Omega 6 fats contained in industrial seed oils (“vegetable oils”), trans fats and various other abominations that have been replacing trans fats.
Read this and note how weak and old the evidence cited here is (president of the AHA).
Two issues here
1. Correlation is not transitive as you seem to assume (the claim is a) sat fats corr cholesterol, and b) cholesterol corr to heart disease, therefore c) sat fats corr heart disease, therefore d) sat fats cause heart disease) . A correlated to B and B correlated to C does not even mean A is correlated to C, let alone that A causes C.
2. When you go looking for solid evidence for saturated fats causing heart disease—as I have—it just isn’t there.
What seems to have happened is that the field was for many years dominated by one man Ancel Keys who had a hunch that saturated fat was the culprit. He then fell prey to the usual cognitive biases, e.g. confirmation bias, and failed to update his views based on evidence.
Unfortunately the mania against saturated fats has let to a large uptake in intake of carbs in particular sugars (which Keys said was better than SF at least on one occasion), and Omega 6 fats contained in industrial seed oils (“vegetable oils”), trans fats and various other abominations that have been replacing trans fats.
Read this and note how weak and old the evidence cited here is (president of the AHA).
Circulation. 2017;136:e1–e23. DOI: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000510
Per your comment about realizing there is a mistake I get the feeling that the tide is turning and they are slowly walking it back.
Contrast the article above with this talk on the issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUY_SDhxf4k&list=LLsRhdFOqQxl9zxUew3GgU8g&index=4&t=0s