Dietary Fat and Weight

In past blogs I've commented that high fat diets have several major health consequences:

     

   Serum cholesterol is raised leading to plaque development with subsequent arterial blockage from rupture with acute thrombosis, the usual cause of a heart attack, or narrowing due long term accumulation of cholesterol in the arterial wall.

   High fat in the blood blocks normal vascular ability to dilate in response to increased demand.

   Insulin is prevented from entering cells; in the long term, type 2 diabetes ensues.

A recent study by Sumei Hu and associates published in the journal Cell Metabolism looked at weight effects of 29 different diets in several strains of lab mice. Portions were not restricted nor was activity. All mice had the same weight response to different food compositions which ranged from 10-80% carbohydrates; 5-30% pure sucrose(sugar); 5-30% protein; 8-80% fat. Only very high fat diets caused the mice to overeat and become obese. Paradoxically, this did not occur when the diet was extremely high in fat (60-80%) presumably because this food was so unpalatable. High fat diets led to genetic change in brain areas evoking a happy feeling and driving too much calorie consumption, but no other dietary combination did this.