Reducing saturated fat consumption reduces mortality

A systematic review of 17 essays Randomized studies have revealed that, in people at high cardiovascular risk, reducing saturated fat consumption was associated with lower all-cause mortality and a possible reduction in cardiovascular deaths, heart attacks and strokes, according to experts from the University of Toronto, McMaster University (both in Canada) and Texas A&M University (United States).

It should be noted that the greatest benefit in preventing non-fatal heart attacks occurred when replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats (PUFA) instead of simply reducing them. In people with low or intermediate cardiovascular risk, reducing or replacing saturated fat consumption offered little or no benefit over the course of 5 years.

The researchers, who publish the study in Annals of Internal Medicinereviewed trials with 66,337 participants who compared the effect of reducing saturated fat intake or replacing it with alternative nutrients such as PUFAs on mortality and cardiovascular outcomes for at least two years. The data showed that, overall, reducing saturated fat intake resulted in significant reductions in total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C).

For high-risk people, low-to-moderate certainty evidence showed that the reduction of saturated fat intake may have important benefits for all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), and stroke. In particular, replacing saturated fat with PUFA showed significant absolute reductions in the risk of nonfatal MI. For low-risk people, the absolute benefits were not significant.

These findings suggest that reducing saturated fat may be more relevant to high-risk populationsand that PUFA replacement could enhance the benefits.