Women increase death risk eating saturated fat

WOMEN only need to eat an extra 100 grams of saturated fat a week to increase their chances of dying from heart disease by nearly 40%, a new study showed yesterday.

The research was based on 2,700 British men and women between the ages of 40 and 75 who were taking part in the 1984 Health and Lifestyle Survey. David Boniface, head of statistics at the University of Hertfordshire, looked at them over a 16-year period and found there was a direct link between the amount of saturated fat a woman ate and coronary heart disease.

People’s diet was assessed by asking them about how often they ate items from 30 different food groups and the amounts of bread, butter, margarine, milk, coffee, tea and sugar they consumed. Mr Boniface excluded people with a specific illness or condition which influenced their diet, or which carried an increased risk of heart disease.