3 ways to make it "appear" that saturated fat doesn't cause heart disease
1. Play the S curve. LDL has a sigmoidal (s shaped) impact on heart disease. So if you pick a range that is around the flat top of the S (like many Western countries) you wont see much impact with increased saturated fat. Then you can say look here - sat fat went up but there was no effect on heart disease. When studies instead look at going from low sat fat to high then big differences are seen
2. Compare it to something equally bad. If sat fat is replaced with low quality carbs then bingo again - no difference seen. However when it is replaced with polyunsaturated fats, monounsaturated fats, or wholegrains then you see heart disease reductions of 25%, 15%, and 9% respectively
3. Choose your source carefully. Foods have multiple components so if you choose a food that has compensatory beneficial effects, then these can offset the negatives of contained saturated fat. So studies using fish, olive oil, dark chocolate come out fairly neutral due to this effect. Dairy is on a spectrum with fermented being the best and butter the worst. The foods you would avoid for the "saturated fat is harmless" trick are fatty meats, tropical oils and butter
This recent video goes over these three aspects very well: The Truth about Saturated Fat | New Narrative Review
