Research confirms long-term health benefits of unsaturated fat from plant-based food versus animal fats

17 Jul 2024 --- By using blood fat profiles, researchers have confirmed the health benefits of switching to a diet rich in plant-based unsaturated fats instead of one high in saturated animal fats. These dietary changes affect the fat composition in the blood, which influences long-term disease risk.

Although the WHO recommends replacing saturated fats with plant-based unsaturated oils to reduce cardiometabolic risk, research to verify this has been challenging. The new study uses lipidomics — detailed lipid (fat) measurements — which enabled the research team to link diet and disease. 

“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,” says Clemens Wittenbecher, research leader at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and the study’s senior author.

The research combined dietary intervention studies that use highly controlled diets with previously carried out cohort studies with long-term health tracking. 

“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,” explains Wittenbecher.

Dietary trials 
The study, published in Nature Medicine, included a 16-week dietary intervention study at the University of Reading, UK, with 113 participants. One group consumed a diet high in saturated animal fats; the second group followed a diet rich in unsaturated plant-based fats. 

The researchers analyzed participants’ blood samples with lipidomics to identify specific lipid molecules reflecting each person’s different diets.

“We summarized the effects on blood lipids with a multi-lipid score (MLS). A high MLS indicates a healthy blood fat profile. A high intake of unsaturated plant fat and low intake of saturated animal fat can help achieve such positive MLS levels,” says Fabian Eichelmann from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, the study’s first author.

The Mediterranean diet is rich in nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and olive oil.The team statistically related the MLS results to the occurrence of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in previous extensive observational studies. These studies followed participants who were initially healthy for several years. 

Both study sets showed that participants with a beneficial dietary fat composition and, thus, a higher MLS had a “substantially reduced risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases.” 

Mediterranean diet 
The researchers underscore that switching to a healthier diet can have the most pronounced health benefits and highlight the benefits of a Mediterranean diet. This diet is rich in nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and olive oil. 

By analyzing a previous intervention trial, the Predimed trials, they found that diabetes prevention was most pronounced in people with low MLS scores or a high saturated fat content at the start of the study. This earlier trial randomly assigned participants to either Mediterranean or low-fat diets. 

The US News and World Report ranked the Mediterranean diet as the “best diet” for seven years. The organization’s experts also ranked it as the top diet for diabetes, heart health, healthy eating and bone and joint health.