Short-term high-fat diet may inflame

U.S. researchers, in an animal study, link high-fat diets — even short-term — to inflammation that can lead to heart disease.

The study, published in Circulation Research, finds the fat cells surrounding the coronary arteries become highly inflamed after mice are fed a high-fat diet for only two weeks.

This is independent of weight gain or blood lipids — cholesterol levels, study senior author Dr. Neal Weintraub of the University of Cincinnati said in a statement. This is a warning to those who say there isn’t a problem because their weight and cholesterol levels are under control. Lipid profiles don’t hold all the answers.

Bad dietary habits can lead to a number of problems, and this suggests a high fat diet is detrimental in ways that were not previously understood, Weintraub says.

These new findings suggest a direct link between poor dietary habits and inflammation of blood vessels, mediated by the fat cells surrounding the blood vessel wall, Weintraub says.