A scientific study just did what all listicles try to do every day: they provided scientific evidence on which quick swaps are the best.
This was an enormous study, spanning 24 to 30 years, taking data from 84,628 women and 42,908 men. The beginning of the study saw all participants healthy, without heart disease, diabetes, or cancer.
The findings? People who ate fewer saturated fatty acids ate more refined carbs, like white bread. Doing the opposite saw a surprisingly large drop in their risk of heart disease. Every five calories of saturated fats replaced with unsaturated fats and complex carbs saw an up to 25 percent lower risk of heart disease.
Saturated fats include foods like cooking fatty beef, lamb, pork, lard, cream, butter, and cheese.
Replacing these foods with healthy fats like olive oil instead of butter for cooking can help cut your risk of heart disease, as can replacing high carb snacks like potato chips and cookies with things like peanuts and olives.
So those are your swaps. Cut out your saturated fats and carbs and replace them with healthy fats. Protein is find as well, it’s just preparing them without added saturated fat that’s the problem.
“Our findings suggest that the low-fat, high-carb trends of the 1980s and 1990s, are not effective in reducing risk of CHD,” said Yanping Li, a co-author of the study.
“It means that individuals should not replace saturated fat with refined carbs or vice versa. Dietary recommendations to reduce saturated fats should specify their replacement with unsaturated fats or with healthy carbohydrates, such as whole grains.”
There you have it: your science-mandated healthy swaps for reducing your risk of heart disease!
