What You Eat May Not Matter That Much When It Comes To Cancer And Heart Disease
BLITZER: Welcome back. Health experts call it a big fat disappointment. A new study seems to indicate what you eat doesn't really matter that much when it comes to cancer and heart disease. Of course, there's much more to it than that. Let's bring in our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, to explain. Elizabeth, I am totally confused, but I know you will clarify what's going on.</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I will shed light, Wolf. Wolf, indeed, what the headlines say is, hey, it doesn't matter what you eat. The study says, you're not going to lower your risk of heart disease and cancer. So, go ahead and eat as much french fries and burgers as you want. Well, when you really look at the study, that's not what it says. The study does say that the women in the study who ate lots of fat, they had the same heart disease and cancer risk as people who cut their fat. However, when you really look at it, what it says is that the women in the study who managed to cut down on their bad fat, who managed to eat much less bad fat, they did indeed see a serious decrease in their risk of heart disease, 17 percent. Now, you might say, what's a good fat? What's a bad fat? Well, I am going to explain it, Wolf, because you are going to be hearing more and more about this, as time goes on. A good fat is something like olive oil or fish, the kind of fat that is in fish. That can actually protect your heart. Bad fat is what you find in fried foods, is what you find in hamburgers and other kinds of red meat. And those are the kind of fats that you want to stay away from. So, again, this study is yet another piece of evidence that it's not how much fat you eat; it's what kind of fat you eat.</s>BLITZER: Elizabeth, I take it, everyone in this study was over the age of 62 years old. What, if anything, does that mean for the rest of us?</s>COHEN: Right. It actually means a lot. If these women, these women at the age of, let's say, 65 were able to get their heart disease risk down 17 percent by cutting way down on bad fat, imagine what would happen if you made that same dietary change at 25? So, some of these women had terrible diets for decades and decades, made this one switch very late in life, and still saw a serious decrease in risk of having heart disease. Well, if they had made that change decades earlier, the risk certainly would have gone down even more.</s>BLITZER: A lot of us who have tried to lose weight, Elizabeth, when we stop eating the fat, we -- we go to some non-fat products, though, that have a lot of sugar in it. What's the -- what's the latest thinking on that?</s>COHEN: Right. People have a tendency to say, well, I'm eating less fat, so I'm going to go crazy with the gummy bears. There's no fat in those. It says so right on the label, or some of those cookies that don't have fat, but have lots of sugar. You certainly can do some of that, but if you do too much of it, it can really mess with your insulin levels. And that's especially true as you age. So, if you're going to lower the fat in your diet, replace it with -- obviously, fruits and vegetables are the best choice. Whole grains are also a terrific choice. Low-fat protein, like chicken, is a terrific choice. Don't just replace it with junk.</s>BLITZER: But a lot of fruit -- and I love fruit, like grapes or whatever, they have a lot of sugar, too, right?</s>COHEN: They do, but there is a difference between the sugar that you find in fruit and the sugar that you find just by downing handful after handful of those kind of candies that we were just talking about. And, of course, everything in moderation. You don't want to replace the fat that you're losing just with fruit. You want to replace it with a variety of things.</s>BLITZER: All right, so, the bottom line, people watching this, trying to understand what it all means, what should they walk away with?</s>COHEN: What they should walk away from is that there are good fats and there are bad fats. Good fats, like olive oil, which are monounsaturated, or fish, which is omega-3 fatty acids, those are good fats. Bad fats, like saturated fats and trans fat, like you find in steak, like you find in fried foods, those are bad. You should stay away from those as much as you can. There are also good carbs and bad carbs. Good carbs are things like whole wheat bread. Bad carbs are things like just sugar you find in, say, gummy bears.</s>BLITZER: Elizabeth Cohen, did an excellent job explaining this complicated story to us -- thanks, Elizabeth -- as I knew you would.</s>COHEN: Sure.</s>BLITZER: Lou Dobbs getting ready for his program that begins right at the top of the hour. And Lou is going to tell us what he's working on. Hi, Lou.</s>LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Wolf. Thank you. At the top of the hour, we will have all of the day's news. Many news outlets all around the world, including this network, refusing to show the controversial cartoon of Mohammed. We're going to talk about that decision, and whether it is an abandonment of free speech. Is it editorial sensitivity or editorial cowardice? My guests tonight will include the editor in chief of a New York newspaper who, along with his staff, walked off their jobs today over the controversial cartoon, a Wyoming newspaper publisher who did publish two of the cartoons, the head of the American Cartoon Editorial Association and the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. And Democrats, well, they can't seem to find a message. They can't seem to find traction, despite a Republican Party suffering huge problems. I will be talking tonight with a distinguished panel of Democrats who have a plan they say will win back power for their party. Can they? We will find out tonight. Please join us -- Wolf, back to you.</s>BLITZER: And don't tell us now, Lou, but I just want to know, will you be telling your viewers how you feel on this controversy, whether we should be showing these cartoons, other news organizations? In other words, will Lou Dobbs tell us what he thinks?</s>DOBBS: Absolutely, unequivocally. And I probably won't please the management of this network in doing so, Wolf, as you might suspect.</s>BLITZER: Well, I think you have already told us, as I'm not surprised. Lou Dobbs, we will be watching. Thanks very much.</s>DOBBS: Thanks, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Lou Dobbs coming up right at the top of the hour. Up next, exotic creatures from a lost world, now as close as your computer -- our Internet reporters will show you the situation online. Plus, he calls it a tinderbox and a nightmare -- a former CIA station chief weighing in on the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections. Stay with us.