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(CNN) -
People who eat more dairy fat have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who eat low, according to new research studying some of the world's largest dairy consumers.
An international team of scientists studied the dairy fat intake of 4,150 60-year-olds in Sweden, a country with one of the highest levels of dairy production and consumption in the world, by measuring blood levels of a specific fatty acid found especially in dairy foods. The experts then followed the subjects for an average of 16 years to see how many suffered from heart attacks, strokes and other serious circulatory events, and how many of them died.
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After statistically adjusting for other known cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as age, income, lifestyle, eating habits, and other illnesses, the researchers found that those with elevated levels of this fatty acid, indicative of high intake of milk fat, had the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as did not increase the risk of death when all causes were taken into account.
The team confirmed these results in other populations after combining the Swedish results with 17 other studies involving a total of almost 43,000 people from the United States, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
"While the results may be partially influenced by factors other than milk fats, our study does not suggest that dairy fats are harmful in and of themselves," Matti Marklund, principal investigator at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, said in a statement. co-main author of the work.
"We found that those with the highest levels actually had the lowest risk of CVD (cardiovascular disease). These relationships are very interesting, but we need more studies to better understand the full health impact of fat and dairy foods." , said.
Lead author Kathy Trieu, a researcher at the George Institute, said that eating some dairy foods, especially fermented products, had previously been associated with heart benefits.
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"There is growing evidence to suggest that the health impact of dairy foods may depend more on the type, such as cheese, yogurt, milk and butter, than on the fat content, raising questions about whether avoiding fat from dairy in general is beneficial for cardiovascular health, "he said in the statement.
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"Our study suggests that reducing the fat in dairy or avoiding it altogether may not be the best option for heart health," he added.
"It is important to remember that, although dairy foods can be rich in saturated fat, they are also rich in many other nutrients and can be part of a healthy diet. However, other fats such as those found in fish, nuts and non-tropical vegetable oils may have greater health benefits than dairy fats, "Trieu said.
Brian Power, a professor in the Department of Health Sciences and Nutrition at the Sligo Institute of Technology, Ireland, said the study encourages us to "rethink what we think we know about food and disease."
"You don't need to avoid dairy products," Power, who was not involved in the study, told CNN in an email.
"This is largely lost in translation when communicating what we know about healthy eating."
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Alice Lichtenstein, director and principal scientist at Tufts University's Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory, told CNN that her greatest concern was that the study results could be interpreted as a suggestion that all fat-filled dairy products reduce the risk of disease. cardiovascular diseases, adding: "the bulk of the data does not support the consumption of dairy products with the full percentage of fat to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease."
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According to the study data, the group with the highest dairy consumption also had, among other things, a lower body mass index, was more physically active, had a lower rate of smoking, lower rates of type 2 diabetes and diseases cardiovascular disease, a higher level of education, a higher intake of vegetables, fruit and fish, and a lower intake of processed meat, that is, a higher quality of the diet, all of which are factors associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular diseases.
"They were controlled in the statistical analyzes, however, some residual interference factor cannot be ruled out. The data reported is for associations, however, the associations cannot establish causality," he told CNN in an email, adding It was also noteworthy that the authors were unable to identify what type of dairy their cohort was consuming.
The research was published in the journal PLOS Medicine.
Dairy cardiovascular diseases
