New research has shown “with even more certainty” the benefits of eating more unsaturated plant fats rather saturated animal fats when it comes to reducing the risk of cardiometabolic diseases.
Researchers looked closely at the fats in the blood of two study groups, one of which ate food high in saturated animal fats for 16 weeks, while the second group consumed high amounts of unsaturated plant-based fats.
The team used a novel approach to link diet with disease by combining their findings with the results of previous studies which included long-term health tracking.
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The findings demonstrate that accurately measuring diet-linked fat changes in the blood is possible and that these changes can be linked to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk.
Senior author Clemens Wittenbecher, from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, said: “Our study confirms with even more certainty the health benefits of a diet high in unsaturated plant fats such as the Mediterranean diet and could help provide targeted dietary advice to those who would benefit most from changing their eating habits.”
The Mediterranean diet is typically high in vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, beans, cereals, grains, fish and unsaturated fats such as olive oil.
Researchers used a method called lipidomics to analyse the fats in the blood, also called lipids.
First author Fabian Eichelmann, from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, said: “We summarised the effects on blood lipids with a multi-lipid score (MLS).
“A high MLS indicates a healthy blood fat profile, and a high intake of unsaturated plant fat and low intake of saturated animal fat can help achieving such positive MLS levels.”
Combining these results with other study findings showed that those with a higher MLS level – a sign of beneficial fat composition – were significantly less at risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases.
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The role of healthy eating in the prevention of chronic diseases is something which is promoted by the World Health Organisation, which recommends that saturated fats are replaced with plant-based unsaturated fats to cut the risk of cardiometabolic disease.
This latest research aimed to overcome the limitations of previous studies into this link, with Clemens Wittenbecher explaining: “Diet is so complex that it is often difficult to draw conclusive evidence from a single study.
“Our approach of using lipidomics to combine intervention studies with highly controlled diets and prospective cohort studies with long-term health tracking can overcome current limitations in nutrition research.”
Read the study in Nature Medicine.
