Is it true that fats are bad for the heart?
For years, the scientific community has split in two over the problem of dietary fat.

1. On the one hand, there is and has existed the faction that believes that fats lead to cardiovascular disease, and which is based on the thesis of Ancel Keys, the father of the Mediterranean diet, that more cholesterol = more health risk.
2. On the other hand, those who believe that fats should not only not be demonized but that they must even be a considerable part of the daily dietary intake, but to the detriment of carbohydrates, which instead are the real culprits of cardiovascular risk.

Each of these factions is made up of doctors, scientists and researchers, and each brings studies to confirm what they say.
It is true, however, that, from the point of view of scientific evidence, the populations of the so-called Blue zones , that is the longest-lived on Earth, have one thing in common: a diet rich in carbohydrates but very low in fat . For example, the famous inhabitants of Okinawa Island eat carbohydrates for about 80% of their daily diet.

Recently, a study shed light on the link between fat and cardiovascular disease, proving that perhaps the former are indeed right. The study showed that fats are bad for the heart.
Let’s try to understand why.

STUDY SHOWS FATS HARM THE HEART

The study, led by Dr. Mariana Byndloss of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is one of those few studies that advocate the idea that obesity is primarily a “gut” issue. That is, it is the change in intestinal bacteria that promotes the increase in body fat and the increase in metabolic diseases. Although the study was conducted on animals, the evidence that the same thing occurs in humans is strong.

In animals, more fat in the diet changes the intestinal epithelium, inflaming it and reducing the ability of the intestinal cells’ mitochondria to generate energy.

The result is that the intestine releases excessive amounts of oxygen and nitrate at the cellular level. The classes of anaerobic bacteria belonging to the “Enterobacteria” (including Escherichia coli) that cause a greater production of TMA (trimethylamine), a toxin that is linked to cardiovascular risk according to two hypotheses, take advantage of this.

• The first, as a molecule in itself, which alone alters blood pressure and has a cytotoxic effect on particular cardiovascular cells .
• The second hypothesis, also supported by this study, is that the liver converts TMA to TMAO, which would lead to atherosclerosis.

The counter-proof is that a drug usually used in chronic intestinal diseases, mesalazine , if taken in combination with a probiotic, would heal inflamed intestinal cells.
But the cause of the inflammation would remain a diet that is too high in fat.
And this would cause high blood pressure, inflammation of heart cells and risk of atherosclerosis.