Research

Macro partitioning

Isocalorically substituting 5% of total energy intake from carbohydrates with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), specifically n-3 and n-6, or plant-based monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) is associated with a statistically significant reduction in all-cause mortality risk.

To potentially lower your risk of all-cause mortality, focus on swapping the energy from carbohydrates for healthy fats. Specifically, aim to replace 5% of your total daily energy from carbs with polyunsaturated fats (like those in nuts, seeds, and fish) or plant-based monounsaturated fats (like olive oil). This swap is associated with a lower risk of death, according to a large network meta-analysis of observational studies.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Moderate CoE was found for an association with lower mortality risk when replacing 5% of energy intake from carbohydrates with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA; HR: 0.90; 95%CI: 0.84, 0.95), n-6 PUFA (0.85; 0.77, 0.94), n-3 PUFA (0.72; 0.59, 0.86), and plant monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA; 0.90; 0.85, 0.95)...
Sabina Wallerer et al. · EClinicalMedicine · 2024

Why this rating

The certainty of evidence is rated as 'moderate' by the authors using the GRADE approach, downgraded due to risk of bias in observational studies.

Source

Association between substituting macronutrients and all-cause mortality: a network meta-analysis of prospective observational studies

Sabina Wallerer et al. · EClinicalMedicine · 2024

DOI 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102807

Meta-analysis · 39 studiesCited 10×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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