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When people ask health professionals about changing their diet to be more healthful, many recommend a low-fat approach. Jaclyn Rose, a dietician at Johns Hopkins, says a more holistic approach including mostly plant-based foods may be better.

Rose: There’s nothing wrong necessarily with a low fat diet it just depends on what you’re replacing those low fat products with. The reason why a plant based diet is more preferred is that it incorporates more fruits and vegetables and whole grains. The reason we really promote that especially as dieticians, is because of the fiber content. So we do look at fat but fat does not necessarily mean fat, right? So there’s heart healthy fats, there’s omega threes, that are found in a variety of different foods that we don’t necessarily consider to be unhealthy.  :30

Rose notes that avocados and most nuts would be considered high fat, yet consuming these foods is actually found to be beneficial for health, especially when saturated animal fats aren’t eaten. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.