Research

Macro partitioning

Replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated vegetable oils does not reduce cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular mortality, or total mortality, despite lowering serum cholesterol.

Current evidence from large clinical trials suggests that simply swapping saturated fats for polyunsaturated vegetable oils does not reduce your risk of heart attack or death, even if it lowers your cholesterol numbers. Relying on this substitution as a primary strategy for heart health protection is not supported by the data.

WeakRefutesHIGH confidence
Dramatic reductions in the consumption of saturated fats had successfully lowered the participants’ cholesterol... yet the expected reductions in either cardiovascular or total mortality were not observed in most trials
Nina Teicholz · Current Opinion in Endocrinology Diabetes and Obesity · 2022

Why this rating

The paper cites large-scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses (Cochrane) as the highest quality evidence available.

Source

A short history of saturated fat: the making and unmaking of a scientific consensus

Nina Teicholz · Current Opinion in Endocrinology Diabetes and Obesity · 2022

DOI 10.1097/med.0000000000000791

narrative_reviewCited 34×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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