Getting fats from plants versus animals increases your lifespan: study

A study of more than 400,000 people followed for up to 24 years found that those who got their dietary fat from plants rather than animals had a significantly lower risk of dying during the study period.

The benefits of vegetable fats include a reduced risk of death from heart disease, the study found.

Conversely, the study “provides evidence that diets high in animal fats, including dairy and eggs, are associated with increased risks of overall and cardiovascular disease mortality,” concluded a team led by Dr. Demetrius Albanes of the U.S. National Cancer Institute. .

As the researchers noted, the composition of fats in plant sources – grains, vegetables, beans or nuts – differs greatly from those derived from animals.

“Vegetable fats are known for their higher composition of monounsaturated fatty acids [MUFAs] and polyunsaturated fatty acids [PUFAs]while animal fats are characterized by a higher proportion of saturated fatty acids [SFAs]”, the team explained.

Bodies need fat to live, but US Dietary Guidelines say that reducing saturated fats and replacing them with unsaturated fats is a healthy move.

How much would that help people in the long run? To find out, Albanes’ team looked at nutrition and health data collected between 1995 and 2019 as part of the National Institutes of Health’s AARP Diet and Health Study.

The analysis included data from 407,531 adults who were, on average, about 61 years old when they participated in the study.

People were divided into five ‘quintiles’ – from the top 20% who consumed the most vegetable fat each day, to the bottom 20% who consumed the lowest amounts (and more animal fat).

Over the course of the study, more than 185,000 participants died, of which approximately 58,500 died from heart disease.

Compared to people who consumed the least amount of vegetable fats, people who were in the top one-fifth of participants for their vegetable fat intake had a 9% lower risk of death from any cause and a 14% lower risk of death from whatever cause. % lower chance of dying from heart disease, the data showed.

Looking at specific sources of vegetable fats, people who consumed the highest amount of fats from vegetable oils had a 12% lower risk of death from all causes and a 15% lower risk of death from heart disease, the study found.

Fats derived from grains were also strongly linked to a reduced risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease, Albanes’ team reported.

On the other hand, people who were in the highest quintile for animal fat intake were more likely to die over the course of the study.

Compared to people who consumed the least daily animal fat, those who consumed the most were 16% more likely to die from any cause and 14% more likely to die from heart disease.

This trend wasn’t just about fats from meat: Death rates were also higher for people who ate a lot of dairy or egg fats daily, the team noted.

The study was published August 12 in the magazine JAMA Internal Medicine.

So what if someone decides to make the switch from meat, dairy and eggs to vegetables, grains and plant-based milk? The researchers calculated the benefit.

“Replacement of 5% energy [intake] from animal fat with 5% energy from vegetable fat, especially fat from grains or vegetable oils, was associated with a lower risk of mortality: 4% to 24% reduction in total mortality, and 5% to 30% reduction in cardiovascular mortality.” Albanes’ group estimated.

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