Chennai: Organisations, including the American Heart Association, have suggested individuals with a family history of high cholesterol in the bloodâfamilial hypercholesterolemia to avoid eating food from animal sources, such as meat, eggs and cheese and to avoid coconut oil.
A new study published in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine found no evidence to support those claims. An international team of experts on heart disease and diet, including five cardiologistsâwho reviewed dietary guidelines for people with familial hypercholesterolemiaâsay they couldn’t find any justification for health experts to recommend a low-saturated fat diet.
According to lead author David Diamond, professor and heart disease researcher at the University of South Florida, ‘for the past 80 years, people with familial hypercholesterolemia have been told to lower their cholesterol with a low-saturated fat diet.’
Familial hypercholesterolemia is a genetic disorder that causes people to have cholesterol levels two to four times higher than the average person.  Hypercholesterolemia is a form of hyperlipidemia, high blood lipids and elevated levels of lipoproteins in the blood.
High-fat cuts of meat, coconut oil and palm oil and dairy products such as cheese, ice-cream and butter contain high levels of saturated fat. Olives and olive oil, peanut butter and peanut oil, sunflower oil, avocados and avocado oil, fatty fishâsuch as salmon and mackerelânuts and seeds, such as almonds, peanuts, cashews, and sesame seeds are among the dietary sources of unsaturated fats.