Argh. This really, really annoys me. Here’s Science Daily’s headline: Link Between Obesity, High-Fat Meals and Heart Disease Reinforced by New Study. What’s the lede?
The effect of a high-fat meal on blood vessel walls can vary among individuals depending on factors such as their waist size and triglyceride levels, suggests new research at UC Davis.
Hmm. Sounds scary! Until I read what they fed the study participants: “two breakfast sandwiches, hash browns and orange juice.“
Whoa … two Egg McMuffins, hash browns and juice? Not exactly the healthiest of breakfasts, but it’s not exactly what I picture as “high-fat” either.
Courtesy of McDonald’s “Bag a Meal,” let’s see what our study participants actually consumed (click image for larger version):
That’s 950 calories, 34g of fat, 115g of carbs, 45g of sugar. So their “high-fat” meal is about 33% calories from fat, which is just a little higher than the 27% calories from fat in the DASH diet prescribed to reduce high blood pressure.
So the meal’s not exactly high in fat. Yes, it’s higher in saturated fat, but even if that was an issue (I don’t think it is), that’s not the biggest problem with this meal.
Consider these:
- it’s half your daily calories if you’re eating 2,000 calories/day
- there’s only 5g of fiber
- there’s nearly 2g of salt, which is nearly the daily limit
- there’s twice the added sugar that the AHA thinks you should have daily
But yeah, it must be the fat.
Argh. Don’t get me wrong, the fat is no picnic either, especially given that two-thirds of it (the non-saturated fat) is likely omega-6-laden vegetable oils. And perhaps it’s possible that these folks had the sausage breakfast sandwiches, which would have doubled the fat (and raised the calories to 1240).
But as far as I’m concerned, all this study (as reported anyways) does is link highly processed industrial food with inflammation. Color me surprised … NOT!
Oh and BTW, someone probably needs to tell them that the idea that carbs can raise triglycerides is now mainstream.
