Re-Analysis Refutes Diet Guidelines Favoring Vegetable Fats

By Alan Mozes

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Enduring dietary wisdom -- that polyunsaturated vegetable fats are better for your heart than saturated animal fats -- may be turned on its head by a fresh analysis of a nearly 50-year-old study.

The reasoning has been that a diet rich in omega-6 polyunsaturated fats lowers cholesterol, and is therefore good for heart health. But an updated look at the study indicates that heart disease patients who follow this advice may actually increase their risk for death.

The original "Sydney Diet Heart Study," was initially conducted between 1966 and 1973, at a time when the cholesterol-lowering benefits of all polyunsaturated vegetable acids (PUFAs) were touted with a broad brush.

But in the ensuing years, researchers have come to understand that not all PUFAs are alike, with key biochemical differences -- and perhaps varying cardiovascular impacts -- observed among multiple types of omega-3s (found in fish oils) and omega-6 linoleic acids.

"There is more than one type of polyunsaturated fatty acid," explained Dr. Christopher Ramsden, who headed the re-analysis and is a clinical investigator with the laboratory of membrane biophysics and biochemistry at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

"And so, we were interested in trying to evaluate just one of these compounds, linoleic acid, by looking at this old trial using modern statistical methods, and also by re-including some original data that had gone missing from the first analysis," Ramsden explained.

The findings appeared online Feb. 5 in the BMJ.

The 458 male participants in the original study had been between the ages of 30 and 59 at enrollment, and all had a history of heart disease, with most having survived a heart attack.

The men were placed into two groups. The first group was told to consume linoleic acid, in the form of safflower oil and safflower oil polyunsaturated margarine, at levels equal to 15 percent of total calorie intake. This, said Ramsden, is equivalent to roughly twice the amount that Americans currently consume.

While omega-3 consumption was not affected, the men were also asked to lower their saturated fat intake so that it made up less than 10 percent of their diets. They did so by substituting safflower oil for animal fats, common margarines and shortening oils, salad dressings, baked goods and other products, according to the study.

The second group continued their routine nutritional habits, and both groups kept food diaries and underwent regular assessments during the three-year-plus study period.

By newly crunching all the original data the NIH team found that, compared to the no-dietary-change group, the linoleic acid group faced a higher risk of death, from both heart disease specifically as well as from all causes overall.

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Brominated Vegetable Oil Q&A

Jan. 30, 2013 -- PepsiCo recently announced it would remove brominated vegetable oil (BVO) from its Gatorade drinks in response to customer concerns.  

Just what is BVO? And what is it doing in your sports drink?

To learn more, we reached out to food chemists Kantha Shelke, PhD, a Chicago scientist who consults with food companies to develop new products, and Walter Vetter, PhD, who is studying BVO at the University of Hohenheim in Germany.

What is BVO?

Brominated vegetable oil is a synthetic chemical that is created when vegetable oil is bonded to the element bromine. Bromine is heavy, and it keeps the oil from floating to the top of water-based solutions, like soft drinks.

Why is BVO in some kinds of drinks?

Citrus flavors -- orange, lemon, lime, and grapefruit -- are oily. “When you put them on a soda or in a beverage, they tend to sit on top of the drink. They are not dispersed all the way through,” Shelke says. BVO acts as an emulsifier, meaning it helps the citrus flavors mix better in the soft drink. Drinks that contain BVO usually look hazy or cloudy.

Why are there concerns about BVO?

In very high amounts drunk over a long period of time, BVO can build up in the body and cause toxic effects.

In 1997, doctors were stumped by the case of a man who came to the emergency room with headaches, fatigue, and a loss of muscle coordination and memory. He continued to get worse over time, and eventually he lost the ability to walk. A blood test found sky-high levels of bromide. The source? The man had been drinking between 2 and 4 liters of soda containing brominated vegetable oil every day. He needed dialysis but eventually recovered.

In 2003, doctors treated a man who developed swollen hands with oozing sores. They diagnosed a rare case of the skin condition bromoderma after blood tests revealed his bromine was about twice normal limits. The man admitted drinking about 8 liters of Ruby Red Squirt, which contains BVO, each day.

High amounts of bromine can also cause skin breakouts known as halogen acne.

What about lower levels?

It’s not known whether BVO might pose health concerns at the low levels most people take in, Vetter says.

But he and others think the food additive needs further study.

That’s because it’s in the same chemical family as flame-retardants like polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE).

Scientists are studying brominated flame retardants because blood tests show that these chemicals can build up in our bodies. Early studies suggest that flame-retardant chemicals disrupt normal hormone function, leading to problems with brain development in children, fertility, thyroid function, and possibly cancer.

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