Dr Malhotra says: “Recent prospective cohort studies have not supported any significant association between saturated fat intake and cardiovascular risk. Instead, saturated fat has been found to be protective”.Dr Malhotra also points out that, “Despite the common belief that high cholesterol is a significant risk factor for coronary artery disease, several independent population studies in healthy adults have shown that low total cholesterol is associated with cardiovascular and non-cardiac mortality, indicating that high total cholesterol is not a risk factor in a healthy population”.As a good cardiologist, he adds, “The government’s obsession with levels of total cholesterol, which has led to the overmedication of millions of people with statins, has diverted our attention from the more egregious risk factor of atherogenic dyslipidaemia”.

Dr Malhotra refreshingly highlights that avoidance of sugar is key to the prevention of metabolic syndrome, which he describes as, “The cluster of hypertension, dysglycaemia, raised triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, and increased waist circumference”. He clearly advocates the use of the Mediterranean diet, which he suggests is three times more powerful than taking a statin.