People who regularly eat foods with saturated fat do not suffer the disease as badly when they develop pancreatitis than those whose diet is generally healthier. This conclusion was reached by scientists from the Mayo Clinic, the University of St. Louis School of Medicine and the University of Washington School of Medicine, according to the website MedicalXpress.
This discovery, apparently, is another confirmation of the so-called obesity paradox. Its essence lies in the fact that excess weight is generally considered an unfavorable factor in terms of health, but in the case of some diseases, obese patients feel better than people of normal weight. As "RG" already wrote, this effect can be observed during hospitalization with any infection or after a stroke.
Pancreatitis - inflammation of the pancreas - occurs for various reasons, such as excessive alcohol consumption. Obese people are also more likely to experience the disease, although it is not yet known exactly why. In this new study, researchers examined the link between pancreatitis and fat intake, whether saturated or unsaturated. The former are found in animal products, while the latter are found in fish and plant foods.
The researchers looked at data from 20 clinical reports in 11 countries that tracked fat intake in overweight patients. It turned out that people who ate a diet high in saturated fat experienced less severe symptoms of pancreatitis than patients who ate a diet high in unsaturated fats.
Scientists tested this theory on mice - some animals were fed saturated fats, others unsaturated. Then pancreatitis was artificially induced in them, and the data obtained theoretically were confirmed. Previously, it's all about how saturated fat interacts with one of the substances produced by the pancreas.
You can read more about the research results in an article published in the journal Science Advances.