A new study shows that among some of the world’s largest consumers of dairy products, people who eat more dairy fat have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who eat lower amounts. PLOS Medicine.
The researchers combined the results of this study in just over 4,000 Swedish people with those of 17 similar studies in other countries, and created the most comprehensive evidence to date of the relationship between this most objective measure of dairy fat consumption and the risk of cardiovascular disease and death..
Dr. Matti Marklund of the George Institute for Global Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Uppsala University said that with the consumption of dairy products on the rise worldwide, a better understanding of the health effects is needed..
Dr Marklund added: ‘Many studies have relied on people’s ability to remember and record the amounts and types of dairy they ate, which is particularly challenging given dairy is commonly used in a variety of foods.“.
“Instead, we measured levels of certain fatty acids in the blood, or the building blocks of fats found in dairy products, which gives a more objective measure of how much dairy fat is that is not dependent on memory or the quality of food databases,” he noted.
Dr Marklund explained: “We found that people with the highest levels actually had the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease. These relationships are very interesting, but we need more studies to better understand the full health impact of dairy fats and dairy foods.”“.
Consumption of milk and dairy products in Sweden is among the highest worldwide An international collaboration between researchers in Sweden, the United States and Australia evaluated the consumption of dairy fat in 4150 60-year-old Swedes by measuring blood levels of a specific fatty acid that is primarily present In dairy products and therefore can be used to reflect the intake of fat, dairy fat.
Then they were followed for an average of 16 years to see how many people had heart attacks, strokes, and other serious circulatory events, and how many died from any cause during that time..
After statistically adjusting for other known risk factors for cardiovascular disease including things like age, income, lifestyle, eating habits, and other diseases, the risk of cardiovascular disease was lower for those with higher levels of fatty acids, reflecting higher intakes of dairy fats. Those with the highest levels did not have an increased risk of death from all causes.
Lead author Dr Cathy Trio, of the George Institute for Global Health, said consumption of some dairy products, especially fermented products, had previously been associated with heart benefits..
