AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Nutrition / 23.10.2014

Mary Ann Honors, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Fellow Division of Epidemiology and Community Health University of MinnesotaMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mary Ann Honors, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Fellow Division of Epidemiology and Community Health University of Minnesota Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Honors: The American Heart Association and USDA have made recommendations on what we should and should not eat in order in reduce our cardiovascular disease risk. We wanted to know whether Americans are currently meeting these recommendations, as well as how our diets have changed over time. In particular, we were interested in several specific nutrients, including trans fats, saturated fats, and the omega-3 fatty acids, DHA and EPA. We examined trends in fatty acid intake in participants from the Minnesota Heart Survey. The Minnesota Heart Survey is a an ongoing, cross-sectional study of adults in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area that was designed to monitor cardiovascular disease risk factors, including diet. We found that intake of trans fats and saturated fats has declined substantially over the last 30 years. However, intake levels are still above current recommendations. With DHA and EPA, we found that levels of intake were pretty steady over time and below what is recommended. Overall, while we saw some encourage trends, there is still some room for improvement in our diets. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Mediterranean Diet, Nutrition / 02.10.2014

Jyrki Virtanen, PhD Adjunct Professor of Nutritional Epidemiology University of Eastern Finland Kuopio, FinlandFor MedicalResearch.com Jyrki Virtanen, PhD Adjunct Professor of Nutritional Epidemiology University of Eastern Finland Kuopio, Finland Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Virtanen: The main finding was that saturated fat intake was not an independent risk factor for Coronary Heart Disease even in a population with relatively high average saturated fat intake, like in this population with middle-aged and older men from Eastern Finland. In other words, intake of carbohydrates in place of saturated fat was not associated with lower risk, not even when the quality of carbohydrates was taken into account. Only when polyunsaturated fat replaced saturated fat in the diet, was the risk of Coronary Heart Disease, especially Coronary Heart Disease mortality, lower. In fact, also replacing trans fat or carbohydrates with polyunsaturated fat was associated with lower risk. The associations were similar with both n-6 and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Trans fat intake was not associated with the Coronary Heart Disease risk, but that is most likely explained by the low intake of trans fat in Finland already in mid-1980s. We also investigated the associations of the fatty acid intake with carotid artery atherosclerosis, and the results were generally similar to the findings with incident Coronary Heart Disease events. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Nutrition / 26.02.2014

Dr. Ulf Risérus Associate Professor in Clinical Nutrition Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism Uppsala Science Park, 75185 Uppsala Faculty of Medicine, Uppsala university SwedenMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Ulf Risérus Associate Professor in Clinical Nutrition Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism Faculty of Medicine, Uppsala university Sweden MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Risérus: It has previously been shown in animal studies that overfeeding polyunsaturated fat causes less fat accumulation than saturated fats, but this study is the first to suggest that this could be true also in humans. Overeating saturated fats caused significantly more accumulation of fat in the liver and intra-abdominally, as compared with overeating polyunsaturated fats from. This study suggests it does matter where the excess calories come from when we gain weight. If a high-caloric diet contains large amounts of saturated fats it seems to switch on some genes that may promote abdominal fat storage and insulin resistance, and thereby result in a more unfavorable fat storage. In contrast, such effects were not seen if the diet was lower in saturated fats but higher in polyunsaturated fats from non-tropical vegetable oils. This study also suggests a novel contributing factor regarding the tendency of some individuals to accumulate fat in the liver and abdomen, i.e. in some people excessive amounts of saturated fat in combination with sugars might induce more fat in their livers and a propensity towards abdominal visceral fat accumulation. (more…)