Research

Macro partitioning

Replacing dietary carbohydrates with saturated fats reduces the risk of stroke and all-cause mortality, whereas replacing carbohydrates with unsaturated fats or animal-derived proteins increases mortality risk.

If you are currently eating a high-carbohydrate diet, consider replacing some of those refined carbs with plant-based fats (like those from nuts or seeds) rather than animal fats. This substitution has been linked to a lower risk of stroke and mortality in large population studies, challenging the old advice to simply cut all fat.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Isocaloric (5% energy) substitution of carbohydrate with saturated fatty acids reduced the risk of stroke by 20% [23]. ... Replacing carbohydrates with plant-based fat and protein was found to reduce the risk of mortality, but animal-derived fat and protein had opposite effects [26].
Jibran A. Wali et al. · Nutrients · 2020

Why this rating

Based on a large observational study (PURE) which the authors themselves acknowledge has limitations regarding the reliability of food frequency questionnaires and baseline-only assessment.

Source

Cardio-Metabolic Effects of High-Fat Diets and Their Underlying Mechanisms—A Narrative Review

Jibran A. Wali et al. · Nutrients · 2020

DOI 10.3390/nu12051505

narrative_reviewCited 222×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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