Good fat fights bad fat

Published: Oct. 3, 2016, 11 p.m.

b'Since the 1970s scientists have condemned fats - or lipids - as the culprits that cause heart attacks. But while that\'s certainly true of some fats, it\'s not the case for all of them. Because one, called palmitoleic acid, can potently protect arteries against becoming clogged. When it\'s fed to mice it cuts their levels of arterial disease by over 30 per cent. Ebru Erbay, at Bilkent University in Turkey, is sufficiently impressed with the performance of palmitoleic acid on her mice that she now even eats it herself as she told Dr. Chris Smith. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists'