The high risk of mortality in the society has been attributed to high consumption of carbohydrate while high fat, on the other hand, portends lower risk of mortality, as reported by medical researchers. The study as reported in the “Lancet,” says that about 135, 335 people between the ages of 35 and 70 in 18 countries, had their diet and mortality studied for an average of more than seven years by a team of international scientists. Factors like age, sex, smoking habit, physical activities and body mass index were controlled by the scientists while they depended on self-report for dietary information. Lead researcher from the Tulane University of Public Health, Lydia Bazanno, described how two groups comprising of high-fat, low carbohydrate diet group were studied against a fat-restricted diet group following the prescription of National Cholesterol Education Program. Both groups were told to get carbohydrate from green, leafy vegetables because of high nutrient and fiber content in them. They were also told to stay away from Trans fats. While the fat-restricted group ate more of carbohydrates including bread and cereals and about 7 percent of saturated fat from an animal product, the high-fat group reduced carbohydrate consumption into the half but did eat butter, meat, and cheese. Both groups were also allowed to eat their diet as much as they wanted.

After a year, the researchers discovered that the high-fat, low carbohydrate group had lost weight as much as three times due to weight loss of their body fat, while the low-fat group lost muscle. Their blood test result which tested how risky both groups could be exposed to heart disease and diabetes was even more glaring. Despite eating nearly twice of saturated fat, the high-fat group had tremendous improvement in LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. This greatly improved their standing on the Framingham risk calculator, which is used to predict 10-year risk of heart attack. By contrast, the Framingham scores of the low-fat group had no improvement. That simply meant they filled the hole created by the absence of fat with carbohydrate.

With this observation, those who ate 20 percent more of carbohydrates had up to 28 percent high risk of dying early, although high carbohydrate intake has no association with cardiovascular death. On the other hand, those who ate 20 percent more of fat, which is an average of 35.3 percent of calories from fat, had as low as 23 percent low risk of dying early. Thus, the lower mortality rate is a factor of consuming higher saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat.

Here is what Jeff Volek; a leading low carbohydrate researcher at Ohio State University had to say about carbohydrate digestion in the body. He asserts that when we eat carbohydrate or any whole grain food, it is broken down to sugar in the blood. Our body then releases insulin hormone which is used to convert the extra blood sugar to fatty acids and stored in the body fat. This reduces the blood sugar; however, more fatty acid is released by the body fat to generate fuel. But this is not the case with high carbohydrate diets. They keep the insulin so high that fatty acids are not released. Thus, the body continues storing sugar into our fat cells, increasing pounds that we never burn. Meanwhile, the only macro-nutrient that does not affect insulin or blood sugar is dietary fat. Low carbohydrate diet keeps insulin levels low enough that the body keeps burning fat. Therefore, what this means is that excessive carbohydrate and not fat causes our body to get bigger.

Also, Dr. Eric Westman, a bariatric physician, and director of the Duke Lifestyle Medicine Clinic has explained that the evidence that too much-saturated fat is bad for the heart is disintegrated. Saturated fat does raise cholesterol, but there is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. A diet that is high in saturated however increases good cholesterol and decreases bad cholesterol. It might interest you to know that carbohydrate does exactly the opposite. In fact, recent reviews of over 72 studies and hundreds of thousands of subjects on this in the Annals of Medicine found no strong evidence that saturated fat cause heart disease.

Today, The American Heart Association (AHA) now acknowledges that consuming refined carbohydrates like flour and sugar poses a threat to your waistline as well as your cardiovascular health. Dr. Linda Van Horn of the AHA nutrition committee said, “We do not think low-fat diet is the answer