The blood fat profile is

Switching from a diet high in saturated animal fats to one high in unsaturated plant fats affects the composition of fats in your blood, which can affect your long-term disease risk. A recent study published in Nature Medicine and conducted by a team of researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Germany, and several other universities, shows that it is possible to precisely measure diet-related changes in blood fats and directly link them to the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

“Our study provides further conclusive evidence that diets high in unsaturated vegetable fats, such as the Mediterranean diet, are beneficial for health and may help to provide targeted dietary advice to people who would benefit most from changing their eating habits,” said Clemens Wittenbecher, research leader at Chalmers University of Technology and senior author of the study.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasized the importance of a healthy diet in preventing chronic disease and has recommended replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats from plant sources to reduce cardiometabolic risk, but these guidelines are only of moderate certainty due to limitations in existing research.

This new study addresses these limitations by performing a detailed analysis of fats in the blood, also known as lipids, in a method called lipidomics. These highly detailed lipid measurements allowed the researchers to innovatively combine different study types to link diet and disease. The new approach combines dietary intervention studies (using strictly controlled diets) with previously conducted cohort studies with long-term health tracking.

Dietary studies to observe how changes in food intake affect blood fats

Part of this research was conducted in a dietary intervention study at the University of Reading in the UK with 113 participants. For 16 weeks, one group consumed a diet high in saturated animal fats, while the other group consumed a diet high in unsaturated vegetable fats. Blood samples were analysed using lipid analysis methods to identify specific lipid molecules that reflected the different diets each participant consumed.

“We summarized the effects on blood lipids with a Multi Lipid Score (MLS). A high MLS indicates a healthy blood lipid profile and such good MLS levels can be achieved by increasing the intake of unsaturated vegetable fats and decreasing the intake of saturated animal fats,” says Fabian Eichelmann from the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbrücke and lead author of the study.

These MLS results from dietary intervention studies were statistically associated with incident cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in previous large observational studies. These large cohort studies followed initially healthy participants over several years. Analysis of data from both sets of studies showed that participants with higher MLS, indicating a beneficial dietary fat composition, had a significantly reduced risk of developing cardiometabolic disease.

Switching to a healthier diet can have the most noticeable health benefits

Additionally, the study looked at whether people with lower MLS levels, an indication of a higher saturated fat content in their diet, particularly benefited from a healthy diet. The Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes the intake of unsaturated vegetable fats, was used in one of the large-scale intervention trials known as the PREDIMED trial. Using this study, the researchers found that the diabetes prevention effect was most pronounced in people who had lower MLS levels at the start of the study.

“Because diet is so complex, it is often difficult to draw conclusive evidence from single studies. Our approach of combining intervention studies with strictly controlled diets and prospective cohort studies with long-term health follow-up using lipid analyses can overcome current limitations in nutrition research,” explains Clemens Wittenbecher.

Previous large-scale cohort and intervention studies the study:

1. EPIC-Potsdam Study, Germany – Nordic diet, Mediterranean diet and risk of chronic diseases: EPIC-Potsdam Study

2. Harvard Nurses’ Health Study – The Nurses’ Health Study and Nurses’ Health Study II are among the largest studies of risk factors for major chronic diseases in women.

3. PREDIMED – Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil or nuts

Research details:

The research is published in the journal Science.Altering the lipidome by improving dietary fat quality may aid in cardiometabolic risk reduction and precision nutrition.The findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Researchers participating in this study include Fabian Eichelmann, Marcela Prada, Laurie Sellem, Kim G. Jackson, Jordi Salas Salvado, Cristina Lazkin Brillo, Ramon Estrucci, Michael Frieden, Frederick Rothqvist, Ulf Ryselas, Katherine M. Rexrode, Marta Guash Ferre, Chi Sun, Walter C. Willett, Miguel Ángel Martínez González, Julie A. Lovegrove, Frank B. Hu, Matthias B. Schulze, and Clemens Wittenbecher.

At the time of the study, the researchers were based in the following locations:

• German Institute for Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Nuthetal, Germany
• German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Neuherberg, Germany
• Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research and Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, Reading, UK
• Human Nutrition Unit, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Institut d’Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili, Rovira i Virgili University, Reus, Spain.
• CIBER Consorcio, Master of Science in Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERObn), Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), Madrid, Spain
• IdiSNA (Navarra Institute of Health), University of Navarra, Pamplona, ​​Spain
• University of Barcelona Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, ​​Spain, Augusto P. Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS);
• Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
• Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
• University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
• Institute of Nutritional Science, University of Potsdam, Nuthetal, Germany
• Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

For further information, please contact:

Clemens Wittenbecher, Assistant Professor, Department of Life Sciences, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden clemens.wittenbecher@chalmers.se +46 31 772 50 80

Fabian Eichelmann, Department of Molecular Epidemiology, German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Germany, fabian.eichelmann@dife.de

Representatives speak English and German. Clemens Wittenbecher also speaks Spanish. Live and pre-recorded interviews are available. Chalmers has a podcast studio and broadcast filming facilities and can accommodate requests for TV, radio and podcast interviews.