When it comes to diet, simple little gestures can have consequences on health. This is the case for the consumption of foods based on animal fat such as butter, which should be replaced by unsaturated fats of plant origin, such asolive oilThese are the conclusions of a study conducted by researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Germany.
According to their results, dietary habits, including unsaturated vegetable fats, such as those adopted in the Mediterranean dietwould reduce the risk of certain chronic pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases or type 2 diabetes. Their results are published in the review Nature Medicine.
A diet rich in unsaturated vegetable fats, such as olive oil, may reduce the risk of certain chronic diseases
To arrive at these results, the researchers initially relied on a panel of 113 participants. The volunteers were divided into two categories. One group had to follow a diet rich in saturated animal fats, and the other had to follow a diet rich in unsaturated vegetable fats. This test was spread over a period of 16 weeks.
In addition, the researchers collected and analyzed blood samples. These “were analyzed by lipidomics to identify specific lipid molecules reflecting the different diets consumed by each participant.”
Using the results of the blood test, the researchers were able to “summarize the effects on blood lipids using a multilipid score (MLS)”explains Professor Fabian Eichelmann of the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbruecke in a press release. He specifies that a person with a high MLS score “indicates a healthy blood lipid profile”. The researchers applied these findings to two study groups comprising several thousand people. The researchers observed the health of the participants over a period of 10 years.
Researchers recommend limiting saturated animal fat intake
The study authors found that participants who had a high MLS score had a 32% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 26% lower risk of Type 2 diabetes. After comparing these data across a cohort of patients, known as the PREDIMED trial, the researchers noticed that people who had a low MLS score (and therefore had a high saturated fat content) had more benefits from following a Mediterranean diet to reduce the risk of chronic disease.
“Our study provides even greater certainty about the health benefits of a diet rich 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 pandemic has led to a major shift in the number of people affected by the pandemic,” said Professor Clemens Wittenbecher, research director at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, in a statement.
Sources :
- Lipidome changes due to improved dietary fat quality inform cardiometabolic risk reduction and precision nutrition – Nature Medicine (11/07/2024)
- Blood fat profiles confirm health benefits of replacing butter with high-quality plant oils – 11/07/2024 (communiqué)