Vegetable oils reduce cholesterol, but do not reduce risk of death, says study
Posted on: 14/Apr/2016 10:00:34 AM
According to researchers, cooking with vegetable can lower cholesterol but may not help curb the risk of heart disease.
People have been largely advised to replace animal fats like butter, cream and lard with plant based oils made from corn, soybean, canola and olives. Research has linked poly unsaturated fat in vegetable oil, nuts and seeds. However, this has never been proven by gold standard studies.
A team of researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined data from an experiment that had more than 9400 participants. They found that the lower cholesterol from swapping saturated fats for vegetable oil did not lead to improved survival. Speaking about this, one of the researchers said, In fact, participants who had greater reductions in cholesterol had higher, rather than lower, risk of death.
Data on residents of one nursing home and six mental hospitals in Minnesota, from 1968 to 1973 were studied. The residents were between 20 and 97 years of age. The residents were randomly assigned to meals that were high in saturated fat from animal fats or to a diet in which saturated fat was replaced by corn oil. The residents who had the swapped meals had a nearly 14 percent drop in cholesterol levels. However, for every 30mg/dL reduction in cholesterol, the risk of death rose by 22 percent. The vegetable oil diet also did not have lower risks of atherosclerosis.
Says one of the researchers, Even so, the findings suggest that saturated fat and linoleic acid, one particular type of polyunsaturated fat, may not differ much in their effects on vascular health. More research is still needed to fully understand which fats are best. People should focus on recommendations that are not in doubt: avoid trans fats, added sugars, and sodium, (and) eat a varied diet rich in a variety of vegetables, whole fruits, whole grains, sea foods, lean meats, eggs, legumes, and nuts, seeds and soy products. (Vegetable oil) may or may not be better for blood vessels compared to saturated fat, but there is no evidence that it does harm and there is no need to stop using it.
