Our World — 27 March 2010

VOA's weekly science and technology radio magazine

26 March 2010

MUSIC: "Our World" theme

This week on Our World: All fats are not created equal ... A new way of making salt water drinkable ... and the gender gap in American science ...

JEMISON: "They are really derailed from their track to becoming professional scientists by academic systems and societies that are neither color blind nor gender blind. There is a bias that makes them fall out "

Barriers to women and girls in science careers ... a traditional medicine cures a reporter's headache, and more.

I'm Art Chimes. Welcome to VOA's science and technology magazine, "Our World."

Polyunsaturated Fats Reduce Risk of Heart Disease, Study Finds

For years, doctors have been telling patients to cut their consumption of saturated fats — the kinds of fats in meats and milk, for example. Reducing fat in the diet, especially saturated fat, was believed to be an important strategy for lowering the risk of heart disease.

Now, a new study says reducing fat intake isn't enough. Maybe it's the kinds of fats we eat.

MOZAFFARIAN: "And we wanted to look at whether replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat, with a healthy fat rather than, for example, with carbohydrates or protein or other things, was beneficial."

Dariush Mozaffarian of the Harvard School of Public Health thought the answer might lie in the numerous studies over the years that looked at diet and heart disease.