Diets low in saturated fat do not prevent heart disease or improve health and instead public health warnings need to be issued over sugar, a leading scientist says.
The fear that saturated fat raises cholesterol is "completely unfounded" while the current recommendations to follow a low-fat diet are based on flawed evidence, he added.
Writing in the journal Open Heart, leading US cardiovascular research scientist Dr James DiNicolantonio said a "compelling argument can be made for the general lack of evidence in support of a low-fat diet".
Advising people to replace saturated fat with carbohydrates or omega 6 polyunsaturated fats was not supported by scientific research.
"A change in these recommendations is drastically needed as public health could be at risk," he said, adding that the rise in diabetes and obesity over recent years correlated with the increase in carbohydrate consumption "not saturated fat".
He went on: "There is no conclusive proof that a low-fat diet has any positive effects on health. Indeed, the literature indicates a general lack of any effect (good or bad) from a reduction in fat intake."
Instead, he said the culprits of increasing poor health are diets high in carbohydrate and sugar, and a public health campaign is "drastically needed to educate on the harms of a diet high in (these foods)".
Dr DiNicolantonio said the idea that fat causes heart disease was based on a flawed 1950s study which used data from six countries but excluded data from another 16.
