[Angela Foster] (0:14 - 1:29)
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Now let's get back to the episode. Are seed oils causing inflammation? I think, did you earn your label as the most hated woman in America for talking about seed oils?

I did.

[Dr Sarah Berry] (1:29 - 1:31)
The pinnacle of my career, Angela.

[Angela Foster] (1:32 - 1:53)
The high point. In fact, I will link back to our previous episode, actually, where we talked about seed oils in quite a bit of depth. But can you clarify for everyone listening today, what causes, what foods are really causing inflammation, and which ones are linked to increased cholesterol and increased cardiovascular risk?

[Dr Sarah Berry] (1:53 - 7:28)
Yeah, so I think it's important to start with saturated fat. So saturated fat generally is well known, and the evidence is very strong to show that it increases LDL cholesterol, which is our bad cholesterol, and therefore is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. So studies show saturated fat increases cholesterol, can also impact inflammatory pathways negatively, so increase inflammation, and importantly, increases risk of cardiovascular disease.

I think though, it's really important to point out some of the neurones, and as with everything in nutrition, it's a little bit more complicated than it looks on the label. And so I'm afraid I kind of have to go a little bit deeper, because I think it's important to go deeper so that listeners can understand why there is so much confusion and potential miscommunication out there, and misinformation out there. What we know is that what food source the saturated fat comes from also matters.

And this is quite new emerging evidence. And so we know that the food matrix, which refers to the food structure, and also the nutrient interactions within that food also can modulate how a given nutrient impacts our health. And so to put this into practise, so it's something meaningful for anyone listening, we know that if we take dairy, saturated fat that's in it, unfermented dairy, and by this we mean butter, for example, very clearly is associated with an increase in LDL cholesterol and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

However, fermented dairy, which is yoghurt and cheese, actually is not associated with an increase in cholesterol and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. And that is because of something that goes on during the fermentation process, we don't fully understand exactly what it is, there's multiple different mechanisms that have been proposed. But what we do know is consuming the same amount of saturated fat from butter versus cheese or yoghurt raises cholesterol.

But if you have that saturated fat in cheese or yoghurt, actually it doesn't raise cholesterol. And so this is why you can sometimes have these med influencers going online saying, oh, this saturated fat story is all a myth, you've been told, you've been lied to all this time. Saturated fat doesn't cause heart disease doesn't raise cholesterol.

Well, actually, if they're taking the data from yoghurt, they're absolutely right. But if you again, look at the totality of the evidence, populations consuming more saturated fat have higher LDL cholesterol have higher risk of cardiovascular disease, saturated fat from tropical oils, coconut oil, palm oil, etc, raises LDL cholesterol, saturated fat from the unfermented dairy such as butter raises cholesterol. So generally saturated fat, yes, absolutely reducing that can reduce our levels of cholesterol.

We know it's highly variable. There was a study only published about six months ago, by a group in Reading in the UK, that looked at the variability in response to reducing your saturated fat and increasing your polyunsaturated fat intake. And they found some people were really responsive that they had huge reductions in their LDL cholesterol, but some people almost had no effect.

So again, there is that into individual variability, some people are more responsive than others. Great starting point of reduce your saturated fat to reduce your cholesterol. What you can also do is increase your polyunsaturated fat intake.

So your omega six, which I know many people are scared of, because of unfortunately, again, the misinformation out there is one of the strongest ways that you can reduce your LDL cholesterol. And contrary to all the misinformation out there, it does not negatively impact inflammatory levels. So there's all these arguments.

And I know we talked about this in more detail on one of our previous podcasts, so listeners can go back and hear me dive into that there. But I think it's really important to reiterate that the evidence out there about the unfavourable effect of seed oils because of their high polyunsaturated fat, particularly their omega six fat is actually not supported by evidence in humans. There's more than 40 randomised control trials.

He's the gold standard of our research, showing that seed oils or omega six polyunsaturated fatty acids do not increase levels of circulating inflammatory measures across a whole host of different inflammatory measures. In fact, most of the studies show that they may reduce these levels of inflammation, they reduce our levels of cholesterol, it reduces risk of cardiovascular disease. There was again, a great study published last year in JAMA in hundreds of thousands of people, they've been following them in the US over many years, and looking at their levels of butter versus seed oil intake, and found that those who had a higher level of seed oil intake had significantly lower levels of all cause mortality, cardiovascular disease and other diseases.

And so the evidence is consistent all in one direction. Now, if you cherry pick out studies that are done in a Petri dish, or in mice at super physiological doses under really unrealistic conditions, yes, you could find the odd study that shows that seed oils have a detrimental effect in that Petri dish or in that test tube, but not in humans based on current evidence.

[Angela Foster] (7:29 - 8:50)
I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey to vibrant health and high performance. Make sure you check out the show notes for a summary of all the important links to everything we talked about. And if you enjoyed this episode, hit the follow button and share it with a friend on social media, or leave a review over on Apple podcasts.

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Angela talks to Dr Sarah Berry about the controversial topic of seed oils and their impact on inflammation and cardiovascular health. 

Dr Berry, who has gained notoriety for her views on seed oils, clarifies the role of saturated fats in increasing LDL cholesterol and cardiovascular risk, emphasising the importance of the food source from which these fats are derived. She also highlights the nuanced differences between unfermented and fermented dairy products, explaining how the fermentation process alters the health effects of saturated fat.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• Saturated fat is known to increase LDL cholesterol and is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. 
• The source of saturated fat matters, as different food matrices can influence health outcomes. 
• Unfermented dairy products, like butter, are linked to increased cholesterol and cardiovascular risk. 
• Fermented dairy products, such as yogurt and cheese, do not have the same negative effects despite containing saturated fat. 
• There is significant individual variability in how people respond to changes in saturated fat intake. 
• Some individuals may experience substantial reductions in LDL cholesterol when reducing saturated fat and increasing polyunsaturated fat, while others may see little to no effect.