preview

High Fat Diet

Decent Essays

It is often taken for granted that high fat diet leads to coronary heart disease. However, it is the type of fat consumed that matters when it comes to increasing the risk of coronary heart diseases, rather than the total consumption level of fat in a general sense.

Coronary heart disease occurs when a fatty deposit called plague builds up on the inner lining of coronary arteries, which are responsible for supplying oxygenated blood to the heart muscles. The condition, where plague is built up in the arteries, is called atherosclerosis, and it disturbs the flow of blood.

Plagues, fatty deposits, are formed inside coronary arteries when the concentration of LDL in the bloodstream is too high. LDL, a low-density lipoprotein, carries cholesterol …show more content…

In this sense, the general assumption that high fat diet leads to CHD does not make sense, because consuming some types of fat leads to increase in the LDL level, while some types of fat increase the level of HDL in the bloodstream. For instance, saturated fats that are rich in animal are known to be responsible for increasing the high level of LDL. Trans-fat, which is in most of processed food, is even more responsible for causing high level of LDL concentration. On the other hand, polyunsaturated, as well as monounsaturated fats are known to increase the level of HDL. Therefore, it can be said that although fat is responsible for increasing the risk of CHD to some extent, ‘high fat’ in general does not have massive impact on causing CHD. For instance, replacing saturated fat consumption with carbohydrate does not decrease the chance of getting CHD because carbohydrate eventually leads to increasing the LDL level. However, replacing saturated fat or trans-fat with unsaturated fat may decrease the chance of getting CHD, as it increases the level of HDL that takes LDL back to the liver so that it is broken

Get Access