The fat=heart disease link is poorly understood. Just look at what happened to the cholesterol drug Vytorin for a good example. Scientist have long known that statins reduce heart disease. The myth was that it was done by reducing cholesterol levels (comes from fat).

Vytorin is a combo drug of a statin and another type of cholesterol lowering drug (zetia) that reduces cholesterol levels by blocking absorption in the gut unlike statins that work mainly in the liver to cause the drop.

So on the surface this drug should have compounded the positive effects of reducing cholesterol, and they did. However, studies show that heart disease risk was not reduced with the drug, in fact there was a small increase in risk.

Now, many are beginning to say statins work as anti inflammatories in the body and for this reason, not cholesterol lowering, it decreases heart disease. New myth, or the truth?