Changing from a diet high in saturated animal fats to one rich in plant-based unsaturated fats affects the fat composition in the blood and long-term risk of disease, according to a new study.
The study – published in Nature Medicine and conducted by a team comprised of researchers from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke (DIfE), Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, and several other universities — shows that it is possible to accurately measure diet-related fat changes in the blood. These changes can then be directly linked to the risk of developing illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
A portion of the research was carried out in a dietary intervention study from the University of Reading in the UK involving 113 men and women. Over 16 weeks, one study group consumed a diet high in saturated animal fats, while the other followed a diet rich in unsaturated vegetable fats.
Participants’ blood samples were then analysed using lipidomics to identify specific lipid molecules that reflected the subjects’ different diets.
According to lead author Dr. Fabian Eichelmann from the DIfE and scientist at the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), the results of the study showed that a high intake of unsaturated vegetable fats and a low intake of saturated animal fats can help to achieve a positive multi-lipid score (MLS), indicating a healthy blood lipid profile.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends replacing saturated animal fats, such as those found in butter, with vegetable unsaturated fats, such as those found in olive oil, in order to reduce cardiometabolic risk. Up till now, the safety of these guidelines has been moderate due to limitations in existing studies.
To address this, the DlfE study used a novel approach of linking the MLS results from the nutritional intervention study with the occurrence of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in large, previously conducted observational studies.
The joint data analysis from both types of studies showed that participants with a higher MLS – which indicates a beneficial composition of dietary fats – had a significantly reduced risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases.
“Nutrition is so complex that it is often difficult to draw conclusive evidence from a single study,” Wittenbecher explained. “Our approach of using lipidomics to combine intervention studies with tightly controlled diets with prospective cohort studies with long-term health follow-up can overcome the current limitations in nutrition research.”
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