Research
Macro partitioning
Replacing saturated fat with refined carbohydrates does not reduce coronary heart disease (CHD) risk and may increase it, whereas replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fats (monounsaturated or polyunsaturated) reduces CHD risk.
Do not simply cut fat to reduce heart disease risk. If you reduce saturated fats (like butter or fatty meats), replace them with unsaturated fats (like olive oil, nuts, or fish) rather than refined carbohydrates (like white bread or sugar). Replacing saturated fat with refined carbs offers little to no benefit for heart disease risk.
StrongQualifiesHIGH confidence
Metabolic studies, epidemiologic studies, and randomized trials indicate that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat will reduce risk of CHD, but the benefits will be minimal if carbohydrate, especially refined carbohydrate, rather than unsaturated fat replaces the saturated fat.
Why this rating
Supported by prospective studies, metabolic studies, and randomized trials cited in the review.
Source
Current Evidence on Healthy Eating
Walter C. Willett et al. · Annual Review of Public Health · 2013
DOI 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031811-124646
narrative_reviewCited 251×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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