Switching From Animal To Vegetable Fats May Lower Dementia Risk
Some research suggests that sticking to a Mediterranean diet might lower a person’s risk of dementia by as much as 23%.
That involves loads of vegetables, whole grains, and olive oil.
A new study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which followed thousands of older participants for years, has suggested that the type of oil you cook with could affect dementia risk, too.
“Replacing animal fat and saturated fat with vegetable fat and monounsaturated fats could serve as a dementia prevention strategy,” it reads.
Why might that be?
The researchers looked at the data from just under 6,000 participants who had an average age of 68 at the start of the study. None had dementia in the beginning.
The study authors asked participants to fill in surveys about the food they most regularly ate. That included the oils they cooked with, but they also counted oils already present in premade food they consumed.
Scientists split the oils they consumed into animal and vegetable fats, and also marked which were monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and trans fats.
They tracked participants’ progress for an average of six years.
By the end of the observation period, 44% of participants had gone on to develop dementia.
Those who had the highest consumption of vegetable oils were 31% less likely to develop dementia. That accounted for about 23.5% of their diet.
But the researchers worked out that even if a person replaced 5% of their total caloric intake that would otherwise go to animal fat with vegetable and/or polyunsaturated fats, dementia risk may shrink by 15%.
What are some examples of animal and vegetable fats?
Animal fats tend to be saturated fats, while vegetable fats tend to be polyunsaturated.
Some examples of saturated animal fats include:
- Butter
- Ghee
- Lard
And though they aren’t animal-sourced, saturated fats can also include:
- Coconut oil
- Palm oil.
Some examples of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated vegetable oils include:
- Rapeseed oil
- Corn oil
- Sunflower oil
- Olive oil.