High-oleic vegetable oil replacing other fats and blood lipids in people
What it found
Swapping high-oleic vegetable oils for saturated or trans fats lowered LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol in adults.
Swapping them for regular polyunsaturated oils made little difference to blood fats.
What they found
Studies in people
Replacing saturated fat
In 23 diet comparisons involving 528 men and women, swapping saturated fats for high-oleic oils lowered total cholesterol by about 8% and LDL cholesterol by about 11%. HDL cholesterol and triglycerides mostly stayed the same.
Replacing trans fat
In 6 diet comparisons involving 197 men and women, swapping trans fats for high-oleic oils lowered total cholesterol by about 6% and LDL cholesterol by about 9%. It also raised HDL cholesterol by about 6% and lowered triglycerides by about 12%.
Replacing polyunsaturated oils
In 11 studies involving 369 men and women, swapping regular polyunsaturated oils for high-oleic oils caused no major changes in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, or triglycerides.
Other findings
What is high-oleic oil
High-oleic soybean oil contains more than 70% oleic acid. Other similar oils include olive oil, high-oleic sunflower oil, high-oleic safflower oil, and high-oleic canola oil.
What the authors conclude
- They conclude that replacing saturated or trans fats with high-oleic soybean oil would improve blood lipid markers linked to heart disease risk.
- They say that using either high-oleic soybean oil or regular polyunsaturated oils instead of saturated or trans fats would have similar benefits for heart health.
How it was done
A new soybean oil with over 70% oleic acid was developed to replace partially hydrogenated oils that contain trans fats. Scientists wanted to know how this oil might affect heart disease risk factors compared with other common fats.
They gathered controlled feeding trials in adults older than 19 years where high-oleic oils replaced saturated fats, trans fats, or polyunsaturated oils for at least 3 weeks. They analyzed 20 studies comparing high-oleic oils to saturated fats, 4 studies comparing them to trans fats, and 11 studies comparing them to polyunsaturated oils.
What it can’t tell you
- These trials measured blood fats rather than actual heart attacks or heart disease events over many years.
- Most of the studies tested other high-oleic oils like olive or sunflower oil, not specifically high-oleic soybean oil, so results may differ slightly.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- Author disclosures: PJ Huth, VL Fulgoni, and BT Larson, no conflicts of interest.
The paper
- Title
- A systematic review of high-oleic vegetable oil substitutions for other fats and oils on cardiovascular disease risk factors: implications for novel high-oleic soybean oils
- Type
- Systematic review
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Huth PJ, Fulgoni VL, Larson BT (2015). A systematic review of high-oleic vegetable oil substitutions for other fats and oils on cardiovascular disease risk factors: implications for novel high-oleic soybean oils. Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.). doi:10.3945/an.115.008979Free full textPubMed 26567193DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error