--- title: Plant Fats Are Healthier Than Animal Fats, Study Says description: Monounsaturated fats from plant sources are healthier than monounsaturated fats from animal sources, according to a new study. canonical: https://time.com/5208817/plant-animal-fats/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-21T20:00:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:43:21.776Z article:section: Health og:title: Plant Fats Are Healthier Than Animal Fats, Study Says og:description: They may lower your risk of heart disease og:url: https://time.com/5208817/plant-animal-fats/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7157b68949219bd1/6988b7f2cf40a81fd5c46439/healthy-and-filling-avocado.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Time.com stock healthy-and-filling-avocado og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Plant Fats Are Healthier Than Animal Fats, Study Says twitter:description: They may lower your risk of heart disease twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7157b68949219bd1/6988b7f2cf40a81fd5c46439/healthy-and-filling-avocado.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Plant Fats Are Healthier Than Animal Fats, Study Says > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Mar 21, 2018 8:00 PM UTC  Danny Kim for TIME  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Mar 21, 2018 8:00 PM UTC After being vilified for years, [fat is having a comeback](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20477647,00.html?cid=679224014&XID=time-health-hub). But with so many sources and types of fat out there, it can be hard to keep track of what’s healthy and what’s not. A new study, however, offers a simple rule of thumb: Plant fat sources appear to be better for you than animal sources, at least when it comes to [monounsaturated fats](https://healthyforgood.heart.org/eat-smart/articles/monounsaturated-fats). The research, which was presented Wednesday at an American Heart Association conference in New Orleans, found that plant-based monounsaturated fats — like those found in vegetable oils, avocados, nuts and seeds — are associated with a lower risk of dying from heart disease and other causes. Animal-based monounsaturated fats — like those in meat, dairy and eggs — are associated with a higher risk, according to the research. “We have observed a beneficial role of monounsaturated fats for the prevention of cardiovascular and total mortality when plant-based foods are the primary sources,” says Marta Guasch-Ferre, a research associate in the department of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who co-authored the paper with Dr. Geng Zong and Dr. Qi Sun. Though the researchers could not prove cause-and-effect, they looked for patterns in the dietary data of almost 100,000 people. They followed the people for about 22 years, and people completed food questionnaires every four years. During those decades of follow-up, more than 20,600 people died, roughly 4,500 from heart disease. People who ate lots of plant fats had a 16% lower risk of dying compared to those with lower intakes, while those who ate lots of animal fats had a 21% higher risk, compared to those who didn’t eat many of these foods. Replacing even a relatively small number of calories from trans fats, saturated fats and refined carbohydrates with an equal number from plant fats also seemed to cut a person’s risk of dying by 10 to 15%, the researchers found. The difference between plant versus animal fat sources, Guasch-Ferre says, is likely due to the other nutrients found in those foods. Plant sources of monounsaturated fats are typically also rich in vitamins, polyphenols and polyunsaturated fats — longer-chain fats which are known to be heart-healthy. Sources of animal fats, on the other hand, tend to contain lots of saturated fat and cholesterol, which can contribute to heart disease. “Recently, [dietary recommendations have shifted](http://time.com/4142859/2015-us-dietary-guidelines/) toward diets including higher quantities of plant-based foods over animal-based foods,” Guasch-Ferre wrote. “Our results are in accordance with these recommendations.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5208817/plant-animal-fats/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5208817/plant-animal-fats/"},"headline":"Plant Fats Are Healthier Than Animal Fats, Study Says","datePublished":"2018-03-21T20:00:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:43:21.776Z","description":"They may lower your risk of heart disease","url":"https://time.com/5208817/plant-animal-fats/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","onetime","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7157b68949219bd1/6988b7f2cf40a81fd5c46439/healthy-and-filling-avocado.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7157b68949219bd1/6988b7f2cf40a81fd5c46439/healthy-and-filling-avocado.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Time.com stock healthy-and-filling-avocado","caption":"healthy and filling, health food, diet, nutrition, time.com stock, avocado","creditText":"Danny Kim for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5208817/plant-animal-fats/","name":"Plant Fats Are Healthier Than Animal Fats, Study Says"}}]}] ```