# What's the straight dope on fats? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 29, 2012, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-fats/629722 "2012-07-29T01:07:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-fats/629722/21 "2012-08-01T00:47:54Z")
For the very interested [this](http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/123/24/2870.full) is a great read. Lots of details but some sense of it: > [@](#): > > An impressive and expanding body of evidence demonstrates that overall dietary patterns can improve health and prevent CVD (Table 2).108 Several healthful dietary patterns have been identified, often derived by different research approaches but sharing several key characteristics, including an emphasis on fruits, vegetables, other plant foods such as beans and nuts, and (in many patterns) whole grains and fish; with limited or occasional dairy products; and often with limited red meats or processed meats and fewer refined carbohydrates and other processed foods (Table 3). These dietary patterns are each generally consistent with food-based priorities for CVD health (Table 1). In RCTs, consumption of such dietary patterns substantially improves multiple cardiovascular risk factors (Figure 3). … DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) dietary patterns emphasize fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products; include whole grains, poultry, fish, and nuts; and are lower in red meat, sweets, and sugar-sweetened beverages.22,109 The original DASH diet was low in total fat (27% energy) and higher (55% energy) in carbohydrate; additional DASH diet patterns have been evaluated that exchange ∼10% energy of carbohydrate for vegetable sources of monounsaturated fat or protein.109 In controlled feeding trials, each of these DASH diets significantly lowered BP and improved blood lipids compared with usual Western diets … > > … growing evidence suggests that cardiometabolic effects of SFA consumption are modified by which nutrients (or foods) are decreased or increased in exchange for SFA … consumption of vegetable oils, including those that contain PUFA, plant-derived omega-3 fats, and MUFA, is an important feature of dietary patterns that reduce CVD risk … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-fats/629722.md?page=1)