For decades, fat was thought to lead to weight gain, which ushered in the low-fat, high-carb craze of the '80s and '90s and arguably made us sicker than ever. Although we know better now about how fat affects our bodies, there's still controversy about how much fat is healthy and the appropriate amount of saturated vs. unsaturated fat for heart health.
"A ketogenic diet is not bad for your heart; it is actually beneficial for cardiovascular risk factors for people living with type 2 diabetes," Dr. McCarter said. "In a 2018 publication, Bhanpuri et al. Diabetes Therapy, we demonstrated that in following one year of a ketogenic diet for patients with type 2 diabetes, not only did diabetes improve, but also 22 of 26 cardiovascular risk factors improved in the Virta intervention group vs. zero of 22 in the usual care group.
Recent studies have overturned the outdated notion that saturated fats, often consumed on a ketogenic diet, are risk factors for heart disease."
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