Dr. Joel Kahn on saturated fat: what the evidence says · JRE #1175
SUBJECT: SATURATED FAT
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
1997, Clark, 395 randomized clinical trials, what Chris is looking for. In metabolic ward, say, you jack up the saturated fat in your diet, you jack up your cholesterol.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Kahn's citation refers to a real, well-known study: Clarke R, Frost C, Collins R, Appleby P, Peto R, "Dietary lipids and blood cholesterol: quantitative meta-analysis of metabolic ward studies," BMJ 1997;314:112-117. The paper pooled 395 controlled dietary experiments (median duration one month) across 129 groups of healthy volunteers housed in metabolic wards, and found that replacing saturated fat with carbohydrate lowered total and LDL cholesterol, implying the reverse (raising saturated fat intake raises cholesterol) as Kahn stated. Kahn misheard or mispronounced the author's surname ("Clark" instead of "Clarke") but got the year and the "395" figure exactly right, so the underlying citation is accurate rather than fabricated. One imprecision: the metabolic ward experiments Clarke and colleagues analyzed were tightly controlled feeding studies, not uniformly described in the paper as "randomized clinical trials" in the modern sense, though many used randomized crossover or sequential-diet designs within the same volunteers. His co-guest's on-air inability to place the citation reflects unfamiliarity with the specific paper rather than any flaw in the study itself.