Foods With Improved Fat Quality Reduce CVD Risk

17 Oct 2016 --- Swapping regular-consumed food items with improved fat quality can lead to nearly a 30% reduction in cardiovascular disease risk, according to a new study published in British Journal of Nutrition.

The double-blind randomized controlled trial showed that by adding improved fat quality to the daily diet for eight weeks, it’s possible to reduce the serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol by 9 % and 11 %, respectively. This change corresponds to a 27 % reduction in cardiovascular disease risk.

The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of exchanging few commercially regularly-consumed key food items such as spread on bread, fat for cooking, cheese, bread and cereals, with improved fat quality on total cholesterol, LDL-C and inflammatory markers.

In total, 115 moderately hypercholesterolemic non-statin treated adults (25-70 y) were randomly assigned to an experimental diet group (Ex-diet group) or control diet group (C-diet group) for eight weeks with commercially available food items with different fatty acid composition (replacing saturated fatty acids with mostly n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids).

The results showed that in the Ex-diet group, serum total cholesterol (P<0.001) and LDL-C (P<0.001) were reduced after eight weeks, compared to the C-diet group.

The difference in change between the two groups at the end of the study was -9 % and -11 % in total cholesterol and LDL-C, respectively. No difference in change in plasma levels of inflammatory markers was observed between the groups.

The study concluded that by exchanging regularly consumed food items with improved fat quality, consumers can reduce their total cholesterol, with no negative effect on levels of inflammatory markers.

The researchers also claim that these results show how simple food swaps of few commercially available food items can be an easy and manageable way of reducing potential future CVD risk.