Research

Macro partitioning

Replacing carbohydrates with Saturated Fat (SFA) has no significant effect on fasting glucose, though it may slightly lower fasting insulin.

If you swap carbohydrates for saturated fats, do not expect your fasting blood glucose to improve. While it may slightly lower fasting insulin, it does not offer the broader metabolic benefits (like improved HbA1c and insulin secretion) that replacing carbs with polyunsaturated fats does.

StrongRefutesHIGH confidence
Replacing 5% energy from carbohydrate with SFA had no significant effect on fasting glucose (+0.02 mmol/L, 95% CI = -0.01, +0.04; n trials = 99), but lowered fasting insulin (-1.1 pmol/L; -1.7, -0.5; n = 90).
Fumiaki Imamura et al. · PLoS Medicine · 2016

Why this rating

Meta-analysis of 99 trials for fasting glucose.

Source

Effects of Saturated Fat, Polyunsaturated Fat, Monounsaturated Fat, and Carbohydrate on Glucose-Insulin Homeostasis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomised Controlled Feeding Trials

Fumiaki Imamura et al. · PLoS Medicine · 2016

Meta-analysis · 102 studiesCited 487×
Read the paper

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →