FEMALE FAT LINK TO HEART DISEASE
SCIENTISTS say their 16-year study reveals a clear link between a fatty diet and heart disease in women - but not in men.
The study found an extra 100 grams of saturated fat a week increased the risk of heart disease in women by a third.
Nature says University of Hertfordshire researchers interviewed 2,700 British men and women aged 40 to 75.
Lead researcher David Boniface says the effects of men’s diet couldn’t be separated from other risk factors like smoking, drinking and little exercise.
Writing in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, he says the study showed high-fat diets are a less important factor in heart disease for men than women.
The volunteers were asked about their fat intake at the start of the study in 1984 then monitored for coronary heart disease.
Brian Cox, of the University of Cambridge, said: “It’s an important study. You have to start from scratch and analyse men and women separately.”