Switching from a diet high in saturated animal fats to one rich in plant-based unsaturated fats can impact the fat composition in the blood, influencing long-term disease risk. Research indicates that changes in blood fat due to diet can be measured accurately and linked to the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
“Our study reinforces the health advantages of a diet rich in unsaturated plant fats, like the Mediterranean diet, and can offer tailored dietary recommendations to those who would benefit from changing their eating habits,” said Clemens Wittenbecher, the senior author of the study from Chalmers University of Technology.
The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes the role of healthy diets in preventing chronic diseases and recommends replacing saturated fats with plant-based unsaturated fats to lower cardiometabolic risk. However, existing studies have limitations that affect the certainty of these guidelines.
This new study overcomes these limitations by analyzing blood fats, or lipids, in detail using a method called lipidomics. This approach allowed researchers to connect diet and disease by combining different types of studies, including dietary intervention trials with controlled diets and long-term health tracking cohort studies.
Monitoring Blood Fat Changes from Dietary Changes
In a dietary intervention study at the University of Reading, UK, involving 113 participants, one group followed a diet high in saturated animal fats while the other group consumed a diet rich in unsaturated plant-based fats for 16 weeks. Blood samples were analyzed through lipidomics to identify lipid molecules reflecting each participant’s diet.
“We assessed the effects on blood lipids using a multi-lipid score (MLS). A high MLS indicates a healthy blood fat profile, and consuming unsaturated plant fats while limiting saturated animal fats can help achieve positive MLS levels,” said Fabian Eichelmann, the first author of the study from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke.
The MLS results from the dietary intervention study were then linked statistically to cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes occurrence in large observational studies, showing that participants with a higher MLS had a significantly reduced risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases.
Maximizing Health Benefits through Dietary Changes
The study also investigated if individuals with low MLS levels, indicating high saturated fat intake, benefited from a healthier diet. Through the PREDIMED trial focusing on the Mediterranean diet, researchers found that diabetes prevention was most noticeable in individuals with low MLS levels at the beginning of the study.
“Diet is complex, making it challenging to draw definitive conclusions from a single study. Our approach, using lipidomics to merge intervention studies with controlled diets and cohort studies with long-term health tracking, can address current limitations in nutritional research,” explained Clemens Wittenbecher.
