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High Monounsaturated Fat Diets vs. Low-Fat Diets
High Monounsaturated Fat vs. Low-Fat High Monounsaturated Fat vs. Low-Fat
Health professionals around the world have warned against dietary fat for over two
decades. But recently new research is causing nutrition scientists to take another look
at both the type of fat and the amount of fat in the diet. A higher monounsaturated or
"good" fat diet helps your heart because it:
A low-fat, high carbohydrate diet can also decrease total and LDL cholesterol, but a low-fat
diet has the negative effect of raising triglycerides and lowering the good HDL cholesterol.
Not all fat is created equal. This is the subject of the latest Science Advisory from the American Heart Association. For years, health professionals thought that all fat was bad. We now know that the culprit in promoting heart disease is the saturated fat that clogs arteries and elevates cholesterol. New research on the type of fat in the diet has shown that unsaturated fat, mono- and poly-, can actually be beneficial for health. The evidence is so convincing that the American Heart Association now says that a high-monounsaturated fat diet can be an alternative to the presently recommended 30% fat diet to reduce the risk of heart disease (1). A higher monounsaturated fat diet can help the heart, so long as saturated fat intake (mainly from animal products) is low and overall energy needs are balanced. Consumers should substitute foods high in monounsaturated fat like peanuts, peanut butter, and olive oil for saturated fats in the diet from meat and full-fat milk and cheese.
The goal of currently recommended low-fat diets is to lower saturated fat and replace it with carbohydrate (1). While this approach reduces total and bad LDL cholesterol, it also has the negative effect of raising triglycerides and lowering good HDL cholesterol, which is used by the body to carry the bad LDL cholesterol away. A new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) shows that replacing the saturated fat calories with good monoun-saturated fat (MUFA) instead of carbohydrate lowers total and LDL cholesterol as effectively as a low-fat diet and has the additional benefits of lowering triglycerides and maintaining high HDL levels in the blood (2). The study looked at the effects of five different diets on heart health. It compared the Average American diet, which is high in saturated fat, to four other diets. One of the comparison diets was low in total fat (American Heart Association/National Cholesterol Education Program 25% fat diet). The other three were approximately 35% total fat, with 18% from foods high in monounsaturated fat, such as peanuts, peanut butter, peanut oil, or The higher monounsaturated fat diets and the low-fat diet all lowered total cholesterol by about 11% and LDL cholesterol by 14% within a month. However, the peanut diets and olive oil diet had the added benefit of reducing triglycerides by 13% (vs. an 11% increase with the low-fat diet) and maintaining good HDL cholesterol (vs. a 4% decrease with the low-fat diet).
Dr. Penny Kris-Etherton, Distinguished Professor of Nutrition at The Pennsylvania State University and the study’s principal investigator, said "What’s really new and very exciting is that our study shows that people can now include some of their favorite foods, peanuts and peanut butter, in a high-mono, heart-healthy diet and achieve even better results than with a low-fat diet."
This study is important because it shows that another food source rich in MUFAs, specifically peanuts, peanut butter and peanut oil, can be used in designing heart-healthy, higher MUFA diets. And with the higher MUFA diets, subjects saw heart-healthy results in just four weeks. During the course of this controlled study, subjects made small changes in their diets. They used peanut butter instead of butter on bagels, toast, and waffles, and snacked on peanuts instead of chips, crisps or pretzels. Here is a sample menu from the peanuts and peanut butter diet:
1. Kris-Etherton, PM for the AHA Nutrition
Committee. AHA Science Advisory: Monounsaturated
Fatty Acids and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease.
Circulation, September 14, 1999.
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