SCIENCE! Dairy

In this SCIENCE! we look at available evidence for dairy pertaining to health and wellness. So, put down that milk shake (or pick up that milk shake?) and come along...

Remember that life is complicated? So is dairy. Dairy includes milk, cream, yogurt, kefir, cheese, ghee, and butter. All very similar, but also with some pretty significant differences. Skim milk? Whole milk? Homogenized?

Let's look at the studies:

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2016 published that after 12 weeks of eating 'regular fat' cheese (as opposed to 'low fat' cheese) there was no difference in people's cholesterol or markers of the metabolic syndrome (a constellation of increased weight and problems with blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and inflammation).

In 2015, the British Journal of Nutrition published a fascinating study looking at the milk fat globule. The fat in dairy is coated in a layer of sorts. Homogenizing dairy disrupts this layer. The study compared people who ate butter every day (butter does not have much of these fat globules) and whipping cream (fat globules intact...part of the reason that heavy whipping cream separates when you let it sit in the fridge). People who ate the whipping cream had no change in their cholesterol, despite the amount of fat they were consuming. Side point -- whipping cream here does not mean the sugar-infused whipped cream you put on your strawberry short cake, but rather the stuff you find in a carton by the milk and half-and-half.

Let's keep going...

The impressive-sounding International Journal of Cardiology in August 2013 reported that there is no evidence that dairy increases coronary heart disease or stroke risk. Actually, high intake of total fat daily may reduce coronary heart disease. Also, fermented dairy seemed to reduce the risk for stroke.

Hang in there, almost done...

Most recently, in 2017 the Journal of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Research published a meta-analysis of 26 studies. A meta-analysis is a scientific way to combine many different studies looking at a similar topic. They found that dairy was protective against cardiovascular disease and was not associated with coronary heart disease. Whoah.

Actually adding a serving of dairy to your day has been associated with weight loss, even if you keep everything else unchanged.

So in summary of this summary, dairy seems to be beneficial or health neutral, but the details are still being worked out. Issues such as homogenizing make things more complicated. Possibly whipping cream and fermented dairy such as cheese and kefir are beneficial while other dairy may or may not be? Regardless of the details, dairy does not seem to be pro-inflammatory as has been postulated and promoted.

As always, talk with your doctor if you have cholesterol, heart, or other concerns.

And talk with Refine if you would like to learn how to use dairy as part of a personalized nutrition or wellness plan. Contact Refine Wellness Consulting at contact@refinewellnessconsulting.com or on the CONTACT page.