Replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats and carbs from whole grains effectively lowers an individual's risk of developing heart disease, according to a recent study.

Researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that a diet with unsaturated fats and high-quality carbohydrates has the most impact on reducing the risk of heart disease. When saturated fats were replaced with highly processed foods, there was no benefit.

"Our findings suggest that when patients are making lifestyle changes to their diets, cardiologists should encourage the consumption of unsaturated fats like vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds, as well as healthy carbohydrates such as whole grains," Frank B. Hu, study author and professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a statement.

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from 84,628 women and 42,908 men who were free of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer and documented 7,667 incidents of coronary heart disease. Participants provided information on diet, lifestyle, medical history, and newly diagnosed diseases through questionnaires at baseline and every two to four years for 24 to 30 years.

Researchers found that the study participants generally replaces calories from saturated fatty acids with calories from low-quality carbohydrates, such as white bread and potatoes, rather than calories from unsaturated fats found in vegetable oils, nuts and seeds or high-quality carbohydrates like those in whole grains.

Researchers revealed that replacing 5 percent of energy intake from saturated fats with an equivalent intake from either polyunsaturated fats, monounsaturated fats, or carbohydrates from whole grains was associated with 25 percent, 15 percent, and 9 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease, respectively. However, replacing 5 percent of energy intake from saturated fats with carbohydrates from refined starches or sugars was not associated with either increased or decreased risk of coronary heart disease.

"Many physicians could benefit from more in-depth nutritional knowledge to help them counsel their patients on changing their dietary practices in a way that will impact their health. In particular, we found that when study participants consumed less saturated fats, they were replacing them with low-quality carbohydrates such as refined grains that are not beneficial to preventing heart disease," Hu said.

The findings are detailed in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.