Polyunsaturated Fats Cause Heart Disease

Just when the medical establishment thought we were finally safe from dietary cholesterol by reducing trans fats and saturated fats, and eating more polyunsaturated fats, the scientist who discovered the harm caused by trans fats implicates polyunsaturated fats as dangerous:

“Cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease, except if it’s oxidized,” Dr. Kummerow said. Oxidation is a chemical process that happens widely in the body, contributing to aging and the development of degenerative and chronic diseases. Dr. Kummerow contends that the high temperatures used in commercial frying cause inherently unstable polyunsaturated oils to oxidize, and that these oxidized fatty acids become a destructive part of LDL particles. Even when not oxidized by frying, soybean and corn oils can oxidize inside the body.
If true, the hypothesis might explain why studies have found that half of all heart disease patients have normal or low levels of LDL.
“You can have fine levels of LDL and still be in trouble if a lot of that LDL is oxidized,” Dr. Kummerow said.

From The New York Times:

At 99, Fred Kummerow, a pioneer of trans-fat research, is still coming to contrarian conclusions about fat and heart disease.