Saturated fat NOT bad for your heart, what do we believe now?!

Take a deep breath. According to new research, scientists are suggesting that pretty much everything we thought we knew about staying healthy and avoiding heart disease is wrong.

In fact, as it turns out butter may not be the enemy after all.

A huge study reviewed the findings of previous investigations, concluding that saturated fat - the type found in butter and meat products - was not linked to heart problems.

It also suggests that high levels of polyunsaturated fats, the 'good fats' found in foods such as avocados, in your diet does not lower the risk of heart disease. And in a final blow for healthy types, omega-3 fatty acid supplements were found to have no effect on heart health.

Which all puts us into a bit of a tailspin, considering these are long-held assumptions doctors, scientists and medical experts have been pressing on us in recent decades.

Instead of saturated fat being the enemy, the experts claim other food groups should be getting a bad rap. Processed foods came top of the list.

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London cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra said: “This huge and important study provides even more evidence that our focus purely on saturated fat as the number one dietary villain in causing heart disease has been misplaced when we should be focusing on food groups.

“Our over-consumption of processed food is what is driving much of the increasing burden of chronic disease currently plaguing the Western world.

“Poor diet is responsible for more disease than physical inactivity, alcohol and  smoking combined.

“Furthermore, nutritional supplements have no proven benefit for the vast majority of people. It’s better for the body to gain essential nutrients from just eating real food.”

The study appears in the journal Annals Of Internal Medicine and reviewed findings from 72 studies involving 600,000 participants across 18 countries, so it obviously has some serious weight behind it.

But before we all start chowing down on full fat cream cakes and red meat galore, we should look at what we do still know about heart health, diet and healthy living. There's a reason doctors offer dietary and lifestyle changes before statins, and more importantly, notice the difference in their patients.

Here are four pieces of health advice we can still cling onto:

1. Eat oily fish. The study did find it does offer mild heart protection (though there is no evidence supplements work in the same way) so do increase your portions of sardines, mackerel, salmon, tuna (not tinned), kippers and

2. Avocados are really good for you. Even if polyunsaturated fats don't protect your heart, they're packed with vitamins and minerals such as potassium and vitamin C.

3. You should give up sugar. It might be the new health fad but there's plenty to back it up. Diets high in sugar lead to obesity and diabetes among other health concerns such as spotty skin and energy issues. But be warned, sugar hides in pretty much every processed food. So...

4. Reduce processed foods. Cooking from scratch is far healthier as pre-packed foods are often processed with added ingredients such as high levels of salt and sugar, both for flavour and preservation. Sugar and salt added to everything from bread to ready-made curry are often way above health guidelines and will lead to weight gain, energy highs and lows and other health problems.