Dietary saturated fats and their food sources in relation to the risk of coronary heart disease in women.
BACKGROUND
Metabolic studies suggest that saturated fatty acids differ in their effects on blood lipids.


OBJECTIVE
The objective was to examine the associations between intakes of individual saturated fatty acids and their food sources in relation to the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).


METHODS
This was a prospective cohort study of 80082 women in the Nurses' Health Study aged 34-59 y. Subjects had no known cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypercholesterolemia, or diabetes, and completed validated food-frequency questionnaires in 1980.


RESULTS
During 14 y of follow-up, we documented 939 incident cases of major CHD events. In multivariate analyses in which age, smoking, and other covariates were controlled for, intakes of short- to medium-chain saturated fatty acids (4:0-10:0) were not significantly associated with the risk of CHD. In contrast, intakes of longer-chain saturated fatty acids (12:0-18:0) were each separately associated with a small increase in risk. The multivariate RR for a 1% energy increase from stearic acid was 1.19 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.37). The ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fat was strongly and inversely associated with CHD risk (multivariate RR for a comparison of the highest with the lowest deciles: 0.58; 95% CI: 0.41, 0.83; P for trend < 0.0001). Conversely, higher ratios of red meat to poultry and fish consumption and of high-fat to low-fat dairy consumption were associated with significantly greater risk.


CONCLUSIONS
A distinction between stearic acid and other saturated fats does not appear to be important in dietary advice to reduce CHD risk, in part because of the high correlation between stearic acid and other saturated fatty acids in typical diets.
Hu
F B
FB
Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Frank.hu@channing.harvard.edu Hospital
Stampfer
M J
MJ
Manson
J E
JE
Ascherio
A
A
Colditz
G A
GA
Speizer
F E
FE
Hennekens
C H
CH
Willett
W C
WC
D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D003611:Dairy Products / Q000009:adverse effects; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008460:Meat / Q000009:adverse effects; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D016387:Women's Health
D004041:Dietary Fats; D005227:Fatty Acids