Research
Macro partitioning
Adherence to a healthy low-fat diet (low saturated fat, high high-quality carbohydrates, high plant protein) is associated with significantly lower total (HR 0.82), cardiovascular (HR 0.84), and cancer (HR 0.82) mortality in middle-aged and older adults.
Adopt a low-fat diet that emphasizes high-quality carbohydrates (whole grains, fruits, vegetables) and plant proteins (legumes, nuts) while strictly limiting saturated fats. This pattern is associated with an 18% lower risk of death from all causes, heart disease, and cancer in older adults.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Moreover, the highest quintile of a healthy LFD was associated with significantly lower total mortality by 18%, cardiovascular mortality by 16%, and cancer mortality by 18%, respectively, versus the lowest.
Why this rating
Large prospective cohort, long follow-up, but observational design.
Source
Low‐carbohydrate diets, low‐fat diets, and mortality in middle‐aged and older people: A prospective cohort study
Yimin Zhao et al. · Journal of Internal Medicine · 2023
DOI 10.1111/joim.13639
cohort · n=371159Cited 25×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Adherence to a healthy low-carbohydrate diet (low low-quality carbs, high unsaturated fat, high plant protein) is associated with marginally lower total mortality (HR 0.95) in middle-aged and older adults, whereas overall or unhealthy LCDs (high saturated fat/animal protein) increase mortality risk.Good
- Isocaloric replacement of 3% energy from low-quality carbohydrates or saturated fat with plant protein is associated with significantly lower total, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality.Good
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