Polyunsaturated fats are preferable to saturated fats for cardiovascular health due to mechanisms involving reduced fat entry into the intima, less enzymatic modification of APOB, and reduced clumping of saturated fat-rich particles.

“You're still having to weigh it against the other things that progress cardiovascular disease. And on balance, you're still better off with the polyunsaturated fats because they do lower the amount that gets into the inima. They lower the amount that gets retained because it's less likely that APOB will get enzyatically modified. And then those saturated rich particles because they're rigid because they produce ceramides, they're more likely to clump together and cause that fatty streak and that lesion.”