LOVE YOU HEART (heart your milk)
Milk and dairy products have been staple foods for over 10,000 years, but in recent years have sometimes suffered from bad press, leading to some people changing to drinks like soya, oat or even almond. Have they given enough thought to making these decisions when research show that abandoning milk may have severe implications for their health?
There has been a very interesting conference following Men’s Health Week which tackled pre-conceptions head on. It was entitled “Dairy and Men’s Health: From Fertility to Muscles and Hearts.” This was run by Dairy UK, but all the information was science based and peer reviewed, unlike many of the wild and inaccurate offerings of social media.
The conference tackled muscle development, particularly after sporting activity, sperm quality, the impact of diet on an unborn child and not least dairy and heart health which was the one that most interested me. I’ve just come back from a day with my cousin who was adamant that dairy was bad for your heart. I offered to find some science to show that dairy can actually protect your heart.
Dr. Beth Bradley PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at the Global Dairy Platform, looked at the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (PURE in short), together with subsequent clinical studies. PURE took place in 22 countries over 9 years following 136,384 individuals, aged 35-70, looking at mortality and heart health. They studied developed and developing countries, both rich and poor, completing the study in 2018. The dairy foods they looked at were milk, yoghurt and cheese.
The results were conclusive. Total dairy consumption was not associated with higher likelihood of cardiovascular disease, strokes or mortality. Clinical data showed that dairy consumption reduced blood pressure. Very interestingly, it also showed that dairy consumption did not raise total or bad (LDL) cholesterol. Observational data showed that dairy consumption was associated with a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes. In the United States the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed a qualified health claim for yoghurt to put on yoghurt pots that “eating at least 3 servings a week” may reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes.
The point was made that milk fat has been unfairly labelled -“fat does not make you fat”. It was found that cheese which is made out from whole milk potentially reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), probably because the matrix of beneficial nutrients in dairy help reduce the risk. Another finding backed this up, showing that whole fat dairy consumption was associated with a lower risk of mortality, with two or more daily servings having more benefits than those consuming a half portion.
Dairy protein is high quality and easily absorbed. Dairy is a nutrient rich food, globally contributing to 50% of calcium, 10% potassium, 400 unique fatty and bioactive components/peptides to our diet. It’s likely that its ability toreduce inflammation is an important factor in its contribution to heart health. I am now able to report back to my cousin that she’s got it wrong. Luckily, she does love eating dairy and needed an excuse to continue.
THE END