Polyunsaturated fat and the risk of cancer

BMJ 1995;311:1239-1240 (11 November)

Editorials

Polyunsaturated fat and the risk of cancer

Little evidence that high intake increases the risk

Increasing the amount of polyunsaturated fat in people's dietshas been widely advocated as a means of reducing their riskof heart disease. Compared with carbohydrates, dietary polyunsaturatedfat reduces low density lipoprotein cholesterol and raises highdensity lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations,¹ and in severalintervention trials people taking diets that were high in polyunsaturatedfat and low in saturated fat had significantly lower rates ofcoronary heart disease.² ³ In the United States the averageintake of polyunsaturated fat as a proportion of total energyintake has increased from about 3% in the 1950s to 6% today.This increase, which is due to both increased consumption ofvegetable fats and reduced hydrogenation of vegetable oils,may have contributed to the massive decline in the prevalenceof coronary heart disease in the United States over the past30 years. Further increases in consumption, to . . . [Full text of this article]

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