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Plant-sourced and animal-sourced monounsaturated fatty acid intakes in relation to mortality: a prospective nationwide cohort study

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European Journal of Nutrition Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) are typical components of various plant-sourced and animal-sourced foods. However, the associations of MUFA consumption from different sources with mortality remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between MUFA intakes from plant and animal sources and mortality.

Methods

A total of 14,305 participants from China Health and Nutrition Survey were prospectively followed up for 14 years. Dietary intake of MUFAs was assessed by 3-day 24-h dietary records in each round. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to compute hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Results

A total of 1006 deaths occurred during 199,091 person-years of follow-up. Intake of total MUFAs was not associated with mortality (P-trend = 0.17). The plant-sourced MUFA intake was strongly associated with lower mortality [HRQ4vsQ1 (95% CI) 0.72 (0.58–0.89); P-trend = 0.008], whereas animal-sourced MUFA intake showed no significant association. Likewise, oleic acid (OA) and palmitoleic acid (PA) intakes from plant sources were also inversely associated with mortality [HRQ4vsQ1 (95% CI) 0.66 (0.52–0.84) for OA and 0.73 (0.59–0.91) for PA], while animal-sourced OA and PA were not related to mortality. Theoretically replacing saturated fatty acids (SFAs) (5% of total energy) with isocaloric plant-sourced MUFAs was associated with 15% (95% CI 5–25%) lower mortality. In addition, 18% (95% CI 10–26%) lower mortality was observed when theoretically replacing the sum of SFAs and animal-sourced MUFAs with isocaloric plant-sourced MUFAs.

Conclusions

Intakes of MUFAs, including OA and PA, from plant but not animal sources were associated with lower total mortality. These findings suggested the importance of consuming MUFAs from plant-based foods for overall health.

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Abbreviations

AHEI:

Alternative healthy eating index

CHNS:

China Health and Nutrition Survey

CHD:

Coronary heart disease

CI:

Confidence interval

CVD:

Cardiovascular disease

HDL:

High density lipoprotein

HR:

Hazard ratio

LDL:

Low density lipoprotein

MUFAs:

Monounsaturated fatty acids

OA:

Oleic acid

PA:

Palmitoleic acid

PUFAs:

Polyunsaturated fatty acids

RR:

Relative risk

SFAs:

Saturated fatty acids

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Acknowledgements

We thank the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Carolina Population Center (5 R24 HD050924), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the NIH (R01-HD30880, DK056350, R24 HD050924, and R01-HD38700) and the Fogarty International Center, NIH for the CHNS data collection and analysis files from 1989 to 2011 and future surveys.

Funding

This research was funded by Grants from the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. LR18C200001), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 81773419) and China National Program for Support of Top-notch Young Professionals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou, 310058, Zhejiang, China

    Lei Mao, Wenqiao Wang, Fei Wu & Jingjing Jiao

  2. National Engineering Laboratory of Intelligent Food Technology and Equipment, Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Agro-Food Processing, College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou, 310058, Zhejiang, China

    Yu Zhang & Pan Zhuang

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  1. Lei Mao
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Contributions

JJ conceived and designed the study. LM, YZ, WW, PZ, and FW acquired and collected the data. LM and PZ performed statistical analysis. LM drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the results and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content and approved the final version of the manuscript. JJ is the guarantor and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

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Correspondence to Jingjing Jiao.

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Mao, L., Zhang, Y., Wang, W. et al. Plant-sourced and animal-sourced monounsaturated fatty acid intakes in relation to mortality: a prospective nationwide cohort study. Eur J Nutr 59, 1989–1998 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-019-02048-8

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