In addition to serving up
daily fiber benefits, this
fruit contains about five
times the amount of
vitamin C as one serving
of oranges. Vitamin C, a
nutrient that plays an
important role in immunity
boosting and wound
healing, may also help
keep you wrinkle-free,
according to an October
2007 study published in
the American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition. The
study found that lower
dietary intakes of vitamin
C were significantly
associated with wrinkles
and dry skin, regardless of
participant age, sun
exposure, race, income,
BMI, supplement use and
physical activity. One cup
of guava also gives you
over 63 percent more
potassium than a banana
-- 688 mg.
Amazing! Could animal fats actually be as good, or better, than vegetable oils?
MARCH 7, 2013
Eat Your Heart Out
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS
New York Times
Over the last several decades, it has become accepted wisdom that consuming
saturated fat, the type found in meat and butter, is bad for you. Starting in the 1960s,
studies showed convincingly that saturated fat raises cholesterol levels and that these
elevated levels, especially of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or LDL (the so-called
bad cholesterol), increase heart disease. Studies also showed that consuming
polyunsaturated fats — safflower, corn and soybean oils — reduced people’s levels of
overall cholesterol and LDL and should be encouraged.
But new studies may be upending those assumptions. Researchers with the National
Institutes of Health and other organizations recently resurrected the results of a long-
overlooked Australian study conducted from 1966 to 1973, in which one group of men
with heart disease increased omega-6-rich polyunsaturated fat intake to 15 percent of
calories, while reducing saturated fat intake to less than 10 percent. Another group of
men with heart disease continued their normal diets.
The men were followed for an average of 39 months, and those on the polyunsaturated-
rich diet lowered their cholesterol levels by an average of 13 percent. But they also
were more likely to die, and in particular to die of a heart attack, than those who stuck
with their usual diet, which consisted of about 15 percent saturated fat.
This study — the results of which weren’t fully analyzed when it was conducted in the
early days of enthusiasm for polyunsaturated oils — adds to a small but unsettling body
of data suggesting that consuming polyunsaturated oils, even though they reliably lower
cholesterol, may nevertheless increase your risk of heart disease.
In broader terms, the new analysis muddies the already murky issue of just how diet
affects heart-disease risk and health in general. Polyunsaturated oils, while decreasing
cholesterol, may simultaneously promote inflammation throughout the body, says Philip
C. Calder, a professor of nutritional immunology at the University of Southampton, in
England, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new analysis. This inflammation may
initiate heart disease and “outweigh any possible good effect” of the oils.
More fundamentally, we don’t fully understand how high cholesterol levels contribute to
heart disease. Some would argue, Calder wrote in an e-mail, that “the link between
cholesterol and heart disease is not actually as strong as we think.” That possibility,
while startling, lends credence to other studies showing that assiduously sticking to a
diet rich in fish oils, another heart-healthful fat, doesn’t necessarily protect people from
heart attacks or strokes; and that those who carry extra pounds, even to the point of
being slightly obese, may live longer than people who weigh less.
None of this is to say that there are no links between diet and heart disease or
longevity. We know that synthetic trans fats seem particularly risky. And that the
interplay between what you eat and your particular genetics may be primary. But the
truth is, at this point, we don’t truly understand how it all works. Calder said the new
analysis might prompt some people to recommend lowering the use of vegetable oils,
substituting animal fats instead, but that he wasn’t ready to come to that conclusion.
A version of this article appeared in print on 03/10/2013, on page MM14 of the NewYork
edition with the headline: Eat Your Heart Out.