The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology recently issued new cholesterol guidelines that are estimated to double the number of American adults on statins (cholesterol lowering medications) from about 15% to 30%.

New Cholesterol guidelines would place 1/3 of adults on statins

Dr. Neil Stone, who headed the cholesterol guideline panel, explained to reporters, "We're going to give statins to those who are the most likely to benefit." The guidelines increase the emphasis on factors like age, gender, race, and smoking rather than cholesterol levels.

Trying to be more selective about the use of cholesterol medication sounds like a good idea, especially with increasing warnings about newly recognized risks over the past couple years. But when the plan results in doubling the number of American adults on cholesterol lowering medication (and those adults may not even have high cholesterol)...it seems like something went wrong.

We're not the only ones wondering about the new guidelines. The AHA and ACC have taken considerable heat from doctors and researchers.

Rita F. Redberg, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center and the editor of JAMA Internal Medicine and John D. Abramson, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and the author of “Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine,” noted flaws with these guidelines in a New York Times article:

"[This would be good news for patients] if statins actually offered meaningful protection from our No. 1 killer, heart disease; if they helped people live longer or better; and if they had minimal adverse side effects. However, none of these are the case."

After years of recognizing trans fat as a safe food additive, the FDA has finally buckled under mounting research that finds no evidence of safety at any level. The FDA announced trans fats are no longer generally recognized as safe and will move toward eliminating them from the American food supply.

Trans fat has been allowed at low levels in a variety of processed foods. Food companies have even been allowed to label packages as "no trans fat" when the food actually has low levels of trans fat.

The elimination of trans fat from the American diet is expected to cause reductions in diabetes, cholesterol problems, heart attacks, and heart deaths.

Increased trans fat consumption came about with growing use of "healthy" processed liquid oils (corn, soybean, canola, "vegetable"). Manufacturers needed a way to stabilize these fragile liquid oils and in some cases solidify them (think margarine). Food refiners chemically altered them with hydrogenation to form trans fats that would last longer.

Eventually, research confirmed that "healthy" hydrogenated fats were unhealthy, but experts still promoted partially hydrogenated fats as a good choice. Finally, experts have recognized that "healthy" partially hydrogenated oils are unhealthy also because trans fats at any level increase health problems.

What now?

The change is not official yet. Food manufacturers and their "experts" will have a chance to voice their opinion. Fortunately for them, a new type of fat has been created by food scientists- "interesterified fat". Sound yummy? We recommend you avoid trans fats and processed oils, and eat good fats - butter, olive oil, coconut oil...