--- title: Trans Fat Dangers for the Heart description: Not all fats are created equal, and the latest study shows that one in particular can lead to higher rates of heart disease, deaths from heart related problems, and diabetes. canonical: https://time.com/3993274/trans-fats-heart-disease/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-11T22:30:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:05:38.891Z article:section: Health og:title: This Is the Worst Kind of Fat You Can Eat for Your Heart og:description: Not all fats are created equal, and the latest study shows that one in particular can lead to higher rates of heart disease, deaths from heart related problems, and diabetes. og:url: https://time.com/3993274/trans-fats-heart-disease/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc530aa1efae5743/69885ec55f570fac02b1cddd/gettyimages-91684813.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3072 og:image:height: 1728 og:image:alt: High in fat og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is the Worst Kind of Fat You Can Eat for Your Heart twitter:description: Not all fats are created equal, and the latest study shows that one in particular can lead to higher rates of heart disease, deaths from heart related problems, and diabetes. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc530aa1efae5743/69885ec55f570fac02b1cddd/gettyimages-91684813.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is the Worst Kind of Fat for Your Heart > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=daebed4d-8675-4e3d-a28a-a40a4f598561&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Aug 11, 2015 10:30 PM UTC  Nutritional label with focus on fats. Nutritional label with focus on fats. Mark Poprocki—Mark Poprocki  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Aug 11, 2015 10:30 PM UTC As confusing as the diet message can be at times, one thing is clear. There are good fats and bad fats in the foods we eat, and some can really wreak havoc on the heart and its delicate vessels. In a [study published in the _BMJ_](http://www.bmj.com/cgi/doi/10.1136/bmj.h3978), scientists say that trans fats are linked to the highest rates of death from all causes, deaths from heart disease and heart problems. The trans fat risk surpassed even that associated with saturated fat, which is found in formerly taboo-for-the-heart foods like butter, eggs and red meat. Russell de Souza, a dietician and epidemiologist from McMaster University, and his colleagues sifted through the published studies involving hundreds of thousands of participants on trans and saturated fats and their health effects. They found that those eating more trans fats had a 34% higher rate of dying from any cause compared to those eating less, a 28% higher risk of dying from heart disease, and a 21% greater risk of having heart-related health issues. **MORE:** [This Is Why FDA Is Banning Trans Fats](http://time.com/3922629/this-is-why-fda-is-banning-trans-fats/) In contrast, eating saturated fat was not linked to a higher risk of early death, heart-related problems, stroke, or type 2 diabetes. That doesn’t mean, however, that saturated fats now get a green light. de Souza points out that many people who try to cut back on saturated fats tend to substitute them with less healthy fats like those from margarine or with carbohydrates, which can contribute to heart disease. So while saturated fats when compared to trans fats did not substantially increase heart disease risk, that doesn’t mean saturated fats are actually heart healthy. It’s just that in the hierarchy of heart-friendly fats, trans fats are the worst and saturated fats are the next worst. “We didn’t find any evidence for increasing the allowable amount of saturated fat in the diet,” says de Souza. **MORE:** [Trans Fats Are Hiding All Over Your Grocery List](http://time.com/3894216/trans-fat-hydrogenated-oil/) The group that showed the lowest risk of early death or heart disease were those who consumed the most vegetable oils such as olive and canola. “If there is one message to go away with from these results, it’s that substituting saturated and trans fats with whole grains and vegetable oils is a step in the right direction,” says de Souza. The results, he says, support current dietary guidelines for how much of different types of fats people should eat to maintain healthy hearts and lower their risk of chronic diseases. For now, he says, the advice to consume no more than 10% of daily calories in saturated fat and to limit trans fats to less than 1% of calories, is reasonable. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3993274/trans-fats-heart-disease/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3993274/trans-fats-heart-disease/"},"headline":"This Is the Worst Kind of Fat for Your Heart","datePublished":"2015-08-11T22:30:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:05:38.891Z","description":"Not all fats are created equal, and the latest study shows that one in particular can lead to higher rates of heart disease, deaths from heart related problems, and diabetes.","url":"https://time.com/3993274/trans-fats-heart-disease/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","diet","Heart Disease","heart"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc530aa1efae5743/69885ec55f570fac02b1cddd/gettyimages-91684813.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc530aa1efae5743/69885ec55f570fac02b1cddd/gettyimages-91684813.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"High in fat","caption":"High in fat","creditText":"Mark Poprocki—Mark Poprocki","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3993274/trans-fats-heart-disease/","name":"This Is the Worst Kind of Fat for Your Heart"}}]}] ```