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Consuming plant-based oils has been linked to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. miniseries/Getty Images
  • Making dietary changes from a diet high in saturated animal fats to plant-based unsaturated fats could influence long-term disease risk.
  • Research suggests diets high in plant-based unsaturated fats are associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
  • Swapping butter for plant-based oils like olive or avocado oil is one way to swap from saturated to unsaturated fats.

Swapping from a diet that is high in saturated animal fats to plant-based unsaturated fats can impact the fat composition in the blood.

Recent research published in Nature Medicine found that diets high in plant-based unsaturated fats instead of saturated animal fats were associated with a reduced rate of type 2 diabetes as well as cardiovascular 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 and the study’s senior author said in a press statement.

The researchers analyzed fats that are found in the blood called lipids. As part of their study, they examined data from a subset of 113 participants from the DIVAS trial, a dietary intervention randomized control trial.

In the DIVAS trial, 195 participants based in the UK were split into three groups. One group ate a diet that was higher in saturated animal fats for 16 weeks, whilst the other groups ate a diet that was higher in monounsaturated or polyunsaturated plant-based fats. The participants also gave blood samples. The researchers used the blood lipid data from the DIVAS trial to develop a scoring system that summarized the effects of swapping saturated fat with unsaturated fat on 45 lipid metabolite concentrations.

“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 [achieve] such positive MLS levels,” Fabian Eichelmann, first author of the study and researcher from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke said in a press statement.

The researchers then applied the MLS score, along with a simplified score called reduced MLS (rMLS), to data from previously carried out prospective cohort studies and another dietary randomized control trial to examine the effects of dietary fat quality on blood lipids and health outcomes related to dietary fat modifications.

Their analysis showed that participants with a higher MLS or rMLS score, which indicated their diet included more beneficial fats, had a significantly reduced risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases compared with their peers.

A higher MLS score was linked to a six-fold stronger reduction in heart disease risk (32% vs. 5%) and five-fold stronger reduction in type 2 diabetes risk (26% vs. 5%).

However, the study did have several limitations, such as not including independent research to validate absolute effect sizes on all metabolites or establishing thresholds. The participants also were primarily of European ancestry, which limits its generalizability.

The World Health Organization advises that reducing the intake of saturated fatty acids can help decrease LDL cholesterol and have heart health benefits.

Swapping saturated fatty acids with polyunsaturated fatty acids or monounsaturated fatty acids from plant-based foods may also reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

“Animal fats, all those saturated types of fats, are going to increase your risk of heart disease. It tends to elevate blood lipids like triglycerides, cholesterol, both the HDL and LDL cholesterol. And those higher levels of blood lipids have been linked to a higher risk of heart disease,” Evangeline Mantzioris, PhD, an accredited practicing dietitian based in South Australia told Medical News Today.

Healthy fats are an essential part of the diet, but where they come from matters.

“We need fat in the diet because fats (lipids) make up our cellular membranes and are important for brain health,” Dana Hunnes, PhD, a clinical inpatient dietitian at RR-UCLA Medical Center told Medical News Today.

“Fats, plus the food they are found in… can influence heart health significantly. Plant-based sources of fats tend to also be found in foods that are high in , high in micronutrients (vitamins/minerals), antioxidants, and other healthy plant compounds that decrease inflammation in the body. Animal-based saturated fats and the proteins they’re found in increase inflammation which significantly increases the risk for heart disease, ischemic stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancers.”

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) recommends that less than 10 percent of overall calorie intake per day should come from saturated fats.

Roughly 70-75 percent of adults in the US exceed this recommendation in their daily energy intake.

The top contributor of saturated fats for adults are foods like deli sandwiches, grilled cheese, burgers, and hot dogs, as well as dishes like casseroles, quesadillas, and spaghetti with meatballs. The Dietary Guidelines state that these foods may contain ingredients from different food groups that are not very nutrient dense.

The guidelines recommend reducing saturated fat intake by making swaps from saturated fat to unsaturated fat options. Instead of cheese, swapping for nuts, seeds or avocado provides an unsaturated fat option.

Swapping butter for cooking oils that are high in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats can also reduce saturated fat intake.

When it comes to choosing the best plant-based oils to use in cooking, the experts who spoke with Medical News Today say that some options are better than others.

“For plant-based oils, those that are monounsaturated are frequently the healthiest. They are olive oil, avocado oil, peanut oil, and grapeseed oil. Other unsaturated plant-based oils (plant-based omega 3s) that are healthy include walnut oil, flax oil, and hemp oil,” Hunnes said.

But just because an oil is plant-based doesn’t mean it contains unsaturated fats.

“We’ve got things like palm oil, and coconut oil, which are also vegetable plant-based, but have high levels of saturated fat in them, like animals,” Mantzioris said. At the moment, the evidence base seems to suggest that coconut oil and palm oil aren’t going to be the best choices to consume.”

Reheated oils have been found to lose their health benefits and generate more toxins, which can have damaging effects on health.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans advise that canola oil, corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, and soybean oil can be suitable swaps instead of butter.

Mantzioris says another simple swap is not using butter in sandwiches.

“Often if you’re eating the sandwich at the time, you don’t need the butter in there, because butter has traditionally been used to waterproof the bread from the sandwich fillings. So that’s a quick and easy thing people can do is just to not add butter into their sandwiches. Another option might be to use spread in their sandwiches, which changes to a plant-based fat, that also adds a bit more flavor to it,” she said.

Hunnes says when swapping from a diet high in saturated fats to one high in plant-based unsaturated fats, the key is to make slow and simple changes over time.

“I always recommend starting by cutting back on animal-based foods and simultaneously increasing plant-based healthy foods/fats. More vegetables, more avocado, more fruits, more whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes, and this way you’re not walking around hungry. Slow and steady changes are often better tolerated and accepted than rapid cold-turkey changes.”
— Dana Hunnes, PhD