WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A recent study by researchers from Mass General Brigham, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard suggests that replacing butter with plant-based oils may provide significant health benefits, including a lower risk of premature death.
'What's surprising is the magnitude of the association that we found - we saw a 17 percent lower risk of death when we modeled swapping butter with plant-based oils in daily diet. That is a pretty huge effect on health,' said study lead author Yu Zhang.
The study analyzed the dietary habits of 221,000 middle-aged Americans over a 33-year period. Results showed that individuals who consumed the highest amounts of plant-based oils had a 16 percent lower mortality risk compared to those who consumed the least.
Published in JAMA Internal Medicine and presented at the American Heart Association's EPI/Lifestyle Scientific Sessions, the research highlights the potential advantages of plant-based oils such as olive, sunflower, palm, canola, coconut, safflower, corn, peanut, cottonseed, palm kernel, and soybean.
Through a substitution analysis, researchers estimated the health impact of replacing butter with plant oils. They found that swapping just 10 grams of butter per day (less than a tablespoon) for an equivalent amount of plant-based oil could reduce cancer-related deaths and overall mortality by 17 percent.
'People might want to consider that a simple dietary swap - replacing butter with soybean or olive oil - can lead to significant long-term health benefits,' said corresponding author Daniel Wang. 'From a public health perspective, this is a substantial number of deaths from cancer or from other chronic diseases that could be prevented.'
However, the study's participants were primarily health professionals, which may limit how well the findings apply to the broader U.S. population. Researchers hope to further explore the biological mechanisms behind these health benefits in future studies.
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