ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Robert Siegel.
MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
To help interpret these findings, we turn to Dr. Walter Willett. He's the Chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. He's also the author of the book Eat, Drink, And Be Healthy. Professor Willett, thanks so much for being with us.
WALTER WILLETT: Glad to join you.
NORRIS: Were you surprised by these results?
WILLETT: The results really were very consistent with what we've seen emerging in our long-term studies of diet and health in women. We really haven't found the percentage of calories from fat to be related to heart disease or cancer. So it's not a surprise.
NORRIS: But that seems to be counterintuitive. It seems to debunk many of the popular theories of today.
WILLETT: Well, during the 1990s a dominant theory and the national advice had been all fat is bad and we should reduce it as much as possible and instead load up on complex carbohydrates. In fact, there was never really much evidence to support that and this new study, I think, really provides three strikes against the idea of the low-fat diet.
NORRIS: So three strikes against the benefit of a low-fat diet, but one of the key issues here seems to be the role that different kinds of fat can play in disease prevention. All fats aren't equal.
WILLETT: For cancer, as well as heart disease, it's very clear that the total amount of calories is very important, whether they're from fat calories or from carbohydrate calories and there had been a belief that it was just fat calories that count. So avoiding overweight can substantially reduce the risk of heart disease and particularly for postmenopausal breast cancer as well. Even losing a few pounds after menopause can have an important benefit for breast cancer risk.
NORRIS: Now at this point, we should all know the difference between trans fats and polyunsaturated fats. Not all of us do, however, so could you just sort of walk us through this?
WILLETT: It used to be that margarine was the major source, but many margarines now are trans-free and you need to look for that on the label. But, deep-fried fast foods are very high in trans fat and many commercial baked products are also high in trans fat. The healthy forms of fat come as liquid vegetable oils, nuts and seeds, and of course, things made with liquid vegetable oils.
NORRIS: So olive oil, for instance.
WILLETT: Olive oil would be a very healthy type of fat, but so is canola oil, corn oil, and soybean oil.
NORRIS: What kind of advice will doctors now give their patients? I mean, if people read this and they were advised by their physician to either reduce or cut bad fats out of their diet, what will their doctors tell them now?
WILLETT: Well, I think doctors should convey to patients that diet is very important, that the type of fat is very important and the type of carbohydrate also makes a big difference. Replacing refined starches and sugar with whole grain, high fiber kinds of carbohydrates can help reduce heart disease rates and diabetes risk. The reality is that most doctors don't have enough time in their busy practices to go into detail. But you know, this is our body and it's worth taking a few hours to understand how to really take care of it.
NORRIS: Dr. Willett, thank you very much.
WILLETT: It was a pleasure.
NORRIS: You can read the Woman's Health Initiative studies at our Web site, NPR.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.