Saturated Fat and Diabetes

As indicated a few days ago, I am spending a little more time with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.  In fact, now I see that they were released in January of this year when I was beginning my second semester of the doctorate program.  This means I probably did NOT read them until now and that explains why it all seems so new and fantastic to me! 

I am putting together a summary of what I feel are key points, but tonight I want to highlight one item in particular and all on its own.  My assumption is that if I had not fully realized the driver of type 2 diabetes (T2D) maybe some of my readers had not either.  This is especially important to me as several of my family members and friends have T2D, which is prevalent in our country at this time (adults and children).

My thought had been that since diabetes involves a body’s inability to manage blood sugars due to a problem with insulin (either it does not secrete or the body does not responds to its secretion) then sugar or refined carbohydrates must be the main driver of diabetes.  Even as I knew, and you know, obesity is the biggest factor responsible for the increase in cases, sometimes called diabesity - it never occurred to me that the more specific cause of diabetes was the same as heart disease - saturated fatty acids - or saturated fat.

Let me digress a moment - we often hear of total fat- we should consume less than 30% of calories from total fat  (that is 30% of an individual persons daily calorie needs).  Beyond total fat, we have some important differentials and some interesting abbreviations:

SFA - saturated fatty acid

TFA - trans fatty acid

MUFA - monounsaturated fatty acid

PUFA - polyunsaturated fatty acid

The first two are not healthy fats and should be restricted (SFA) or eliminated (TFA) while the other two should be consumed in PLACE OF not in addition to SFA.  Recommendations for health are that we consume less than 10% SFA and strong evidence shows a decrease in new cases and a moderation of existing cases of heart disease and diabetes by doing so.    SFA increases LDL levels and insulin resistance, thus, decreased intake improves both of those markers. 

It is very important and said throughout these guidelines, that calories are a big problem and when adding important food groups one must do so by deleting non nutritious ones - I recall being very adamant about this in some past post - that we cannot just keep adding things - as that adds calories. 

More to come on that - but the take home for today is that saturated fat which is often found in sold fats like butter, margarine and Crisco as well as grain based desserts and red meats is associated with heart disease, stroke and diabetes.  People who do not wish to get these diseases or who wish to treat the markers of their disease (LDL and insulin resistance) should restrict SFA. 

Also noted, an egg a day is not a problem for anyone EXCEPT diabetics.  Never knew that.

Lastly, I really like that the DGA Committee used the phrase, “intermediate markers and end point health outcomes” so that having high low density lipoprotein is not a risk factor for heart disease or diabetes but an “intermediate marker”  - This means if you have high LDL you are on your WAY to disease- and that deserves your attention!

DGAC (Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee). 2010. Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture.