Health
Could a dietary change enhance longevity?
Research indicates that substituting butter with plant-derived oils reduces the risk of untimely death by 17 percent
Replacing butter with plant-based oils on a daily basis may decrease the risk of early mortality by as much as 17 percent, based on a recent investigation conducted by Mass General Brigham, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Broad Institute.
The researchers analyzed dietary and health information from 200,000 individuals tracked over more than three decades and discovered that increased intake of plant-based oils — particularly soybean, canola, and olive oil — correlated with reduced mortality from overall causes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases, whereas butter consumption was associated with a heightened risk of total and cancer-related mortality. The findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
“What’s unexpected is the extent of the correlation we uncovered — we observed a 17 percent reduction in mortality risk when we modeled substituting butter with plant-based oils in a daily diet. That represents a considerable impact on health,” noted study lead author Yu Zhang, a research assistant at the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a student in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard Chan School.
Butter is high in saturated fats, while plant-based oils are composed of a greater proportion of unsaturated fats. While numerous studies have been conducted on dietary fats, fewer have concentrated specifically on their predominant food sources such as butter and oils.
“Even reducing butter consumption slightly and incorporating more plant-based oils into your daily meals can yield significant long-term health advantages.”
Daniel Wang, Brigham and Women’s
The new research investigated dietary information from 221,054 individuals in the Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II, and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Every four years, the participants responded to questions regarding their dietary habits. The research team employed this data to calculate the participants’ butter and plant oil consumption, including mixes of butter and margarine, spreadable butter added to meals and bread, and butter used for baking and frying. The intake of plant-based oils was estimated based on reported usage in frying, sautéing, baking, and salad dressings.
The researchers also tracked participants who had passed away and determined their causes of death. By using statistical methods to compare mortality rates across various dietary intake levels, they discovered that participants consuming the highest amounts of butter had a 15 percent increased risk of death compared to those consuming the least. On the other hand, individuals with the highest intake of plant-based oils had a 16 percent lower risk of death than their counterparts with the lowest consumption.
“Individuals might want to consider that a straightforward dietary alteration — substituting butter with soybean or olive oil — can result in substantial long-term health rewards,” asserted corresponding author Daniel Wang from the Channing Division. Wang also serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Chan School and is an associate member at the Broad Institute. “From a public health viewpoint, this represents a significant number of cancer or chronic disease-related deaths that could be avoided.”
The researchers conducted a substitution analysis, emulating the effects of replacing butter with plant oils on health in an experimental feeding scenario. They discovered that swapping 10 grams of butter daily (less than one tablespoon) with an equivalent caloric amount of plant-based oils could reduce cancer-related deaths and overall mortality by 17 percent.
“Even modest reductions in butter intake combined with an increase in plant-based oils in your everyday meals can produce notable long-term health improvements,” Wang stated.
A limitation of the study is that the participants were predominantly health professionals, thus they might not accurately reflect the overall U.S. population, the researchers noted. In the future, they aim to explore the biological mechanisms explaining why this dietary shift has such a pronounced effect.
Besides Zhang and Wang, co-authors from Mass General Brigham include Katia S. Chadaideh, Yuhan Li, Yuxi Liu, Eric B. Rimm, Frank B. Hu, Walter C. Willett, and Meir J. Stampfer. Additional contributors are Yanping Li, Xiao Gu, and Marta Guasch-Ferré.
This study received funding from research grants provided by the National Institutes of Health.