The importance of being pure

PURE is a five-continent study of diet and heart disease in nearly 150,000 people.

It’s probably the best of its kind ever done, and concluded that high carbohydrate intake was associated with a higher risk of mortality, whereas total fat and individual types of fat were related to lower mortality.

Surprisingly, fats weren’t linked to heart disease, heart attack or death. However, saturated fat was linked to stroke.

According to Dr Richard Lehman in the British Medical Journal this is the closest we’re likely to get to the ‘truth’ about diet and cardiovascular disease.

Households in the research were studied over an average time period of 7.4 years.

Above all, the main message was that there was no specific connection between carbohydrate intake and cardiovascular disease.

By contrast, eating more fat – including saturated fat – was linked to LESS cardiovascular disease, which means we can stop thinking that saturated fat is bad for your heart and your arteries.

This is quite a revolution in our thinking!