Research
Macro partitioning
Replacing dietary saturated fat with monounsaturated fats lowers cardiovascular disease risk, although the evidence is stronger for polyunsaturated fats.
You can improve heart health by replacing saturated fats with either polyunsaturated oils (corn, soybean) or monounsaturated fats (olive oil, avocados, nuts). Polyunsaturated fats have more direct trial evidence, but both are beneficial.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
progress in reducing CVD would be enhanced by replacing saturated fat by either type of unsaturated fat.
Why this rating
Based on observational studies and fewer clinical trials compared to polyunsaturated fats.
Source
Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association
Frank M. Sacks et al. · Circulation · 2017
DOI 10.1161/cir.0000000000000510
Meta-analysisCited 1,333×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Replacing dietary saturated fat with polyunsaturated vegetable oils significantly reduces cardiovascular disease incidence by approximately 30%, an effect comparable to statin treatment.Strong
- Replacing dietary saturated fat with refined carbohydrates or sugars does not reduce cardiovascular disease risk and may be neutral or harmful.Strong
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