Blood Fat Reports Reveal the Benefits of Making Healthy Food Swaps, a New Study Shows

From eating more fruit and vegetables to making sure you’re getting enough vitamins and minerals, there are quick and easy things you can do to improve your health and well-being. However, a new study proves that healthy food swaps can positively impact the fats in your blood. These changes are also connected to the risk of certain serious health conditions, including diabetes and heart disease, as well as bad cholesterol. Keep reading to learn more about the results of the research and how your dietary choices are important for your long-term health.

What did the study reveal about healthy food swaps?

A study published in the journal Nature Medicine on July 11 is informing people that their food choices can make a difference for their long-term health. Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, the German Institute of Human Nutrition and other universities have found a way to measure how healthy food swaps impact the fats in your blood.

Think about shifting your diet from foods high in animal fat to foods that are high in plant-based fats instead. "Our study confirms with even more certainty the health benefits of a diet high in unsaturated plant fats such as the Mediterranean diet and could help provide targeted dietary advice to those who would benefit most from changing their eating habits," Clemens Wittenbecher, research leader at Chalmers University of Technology and the study's senior author, said in a press release regarding the study.

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How did researchers arrive at the findings about blood fat levels and healthy food swaps?

Researchers used lipidomics, a way to get a detailed look at the fats in people’s blood, to find the amounts for everyone in the study. There were two different approaches involved: the first was controlled diets (where people eat a specific way over time), and the other was long-term health habits (where people’s health habits were looked at over many years).

More than 100 participants were split up into two groups during one part of the study. One group consumed a diet full of foods that were high in animal fat and the second group had meals with plant-based fats as the main part of their diet. After 16 weeks, researchers took the blood samples and were able to produce a multi-lipid score (MLS).

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The higher the score, the healthier the blood profile and the results found that those on the plant-based fat diet had better scores than those following the animal-fat diet.

People with higher MLS lower their risk for other health conditions

When looking at the numbers, researchers did find that people with higher MLS lowered their risk for health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and more.

“We built a closely correlated simplified score, reduced MLS (rMLS), and observed that beneficial rMLS changes, suggesting improved dietary fat quality over 10 years, were associated with lower diabetes risk,” per the study.

The study also looked at the Mediterranean diet and how those types of foods can impact  health as well. People who started with low MLS benefitted the most from switching their diet.

Now, these results don’t mean you have to give up all your favorite foods. You can still eat what you love but be mindful that healthy food swaps are beneficial to you overall. Try changing out animal-based fat for plant-based fat two times a week to start.

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This content is not a substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis. Always consult your physician before pursuing any treatment plan .