Is it time to put saturated fats back on the menu? Study finds they've been 'demonised'

Long-derided saturated fats - associated with an array of health problems such as heart disease - caught a break when research revealed their intake could be doubled or even nearly tripled without driving up their level in a person's blood.

Carbohydrates, meanwhile, were associated with heightened levels of a fatty acid linked to increased risk for diabetes and heart disease, the same study showed.

"The point is you don't necessarily save the saturated fat that you eat, and the primary regulator of what you save in terms of fat is the carbohydrate in your diet," senior author Jeff Volek of Ohio State University, said.

To conduct the study, which appeared in the journal PLOS ONE, scientists put 16 participants on a strict dietary regime for 4½ months.

Every three weeks their diets were changed to adjust carbohydrate and total fat and saturated fat levels.

The scientists found that when carbs were reduced and saturated fat was increased, total saturated fat in the blood did not increase, and even went down in most people.