Dr Amitav Banerjee

Address for correspondence: Dr Amitav Banerjee, Professor and Head, Department of Community Medicine, Dr D Y Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Dr DY Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune – 411018, India.

Email: amitavb@gmail.com

Introduction: The diet-heart hypothesis, i.e. dietary cholesterol and saturated fats raise the serum cholesterol which in turn is a risk factor for coronary artery disease is prevalent since the 1950s. Over the years it had a major influence on the perspectives of nutritionists, medical researchers and the lay public. However, of late, the evidence base supporting the diet-heart hypothesis is being increasingly questioned. Besides retrieval and re-analysis of archival data from incomplete studies, study of internal documents of industry reveal that vested interests may have played a role in maintaining the diet-heart hypothesis. This brief review gives an overview of the evidence and conflicting views most of which fell by the wayside in the heady days of the diet-heart hypothesis. It puts forth the question whether there is a paradigm shift in the diet-heart hypothesis. Using the key-words "diet-heart hypothesis" an online literature search was made using PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar. Standard texts on nutritional epidemiology and other writings on the subject were reviewed.

Keywords :Diet-heart hypothesis; evidence base; paradigm shift; coronary heart disease