Our findings provide strong evidence that individual saturated fatty acids are not all the same
- Nita Forouhi
The study found that saturated fatty acids can be associated with both an increased and decreased risk of developing the disease, depending on the type of fatty acids present in the blood.
The results add to the growing debate around the health consequences of fat, and could partially explain evidence from recent studies that suggests some foods high in saturated fats, such as dairy products, could actually lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Saturated fat is typically found in foods with a high proportion of animal fat, such as butter, cheese and red meat, and in fried foods. It is made up of chains of individual fat molecules (fatty acids) that vary in length, depending on how many carbon atoms they contain. These saturated fatty acids have long been considered detrimental to health, and current recommendations suggest they should make up no more than 10 per cent of the calories we eat. However, the role of saturated fat in type 2 diabetes risk is unclear.
In the EPIC-InterAct Study, which was funded mainly by the European Commission under its Framework 6 programme, a team of researchers led by the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge set out to examine the relationship between blood levels of nine different saturated fatty acids and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in later life.
The researchers looked at 12,403 people who developed type 2 diabetes from among a group of 340,234 adults across eight European countries. Using a sophisticated method of high-speed blood analysis, developed especially for the project by researchers at MRC Human Nutrition Research, they determined the proportion of each of the nine fatty acids in blood samples from the study participants and related this with later incidence of type 2 diabetes.
They found that saturated fatty acids with an even number of carbon atoms in their chain (14, 16 and 18 carbon atoms) were associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, while saturated fatty acids with an odd number (15 and 17) were associated with a lower risk.
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Image: Five Guys Coming to Bay Area (cropped)
Credit: Jun Selta
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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