New Study Challenges Dietary Guidelines on Whole-Fat Dairy Foods Researchers are re-examining old guidelines/studies and are discovering exciting results, which is great news for people who love to consume delicious dairy.
When you’re at the grocery store, there is always someone indecisively staring at an item. Indecision often occurs in the milk section. The common thought is that whole-fat dairy items, such as whole milk, taste the best but aren’t healthy, and that non-fat dairy is the healthiest but doesn’t taste as good.
It’s even plastered on the government’s Dietary Guidelines, which suggest people would benefit from
fat-free or low-fat dairy. A new study, however, is challenging those guidelines on whole fat (or full fat) dairy, going as far to say that whole-fat dairy can benefit heart health.
“Consistent with previous findings, our results highlight the need to revisit current dietary guidance on
whole fat dairy foods, which are rich sources of nutrients such as calcium and potassium,” a statement from the official study reads.
This is amazing news for those who love whole milk and other whole fat dairy foods like butter, yogurt, ice cream and various cheese. Think of all the times you reached for one of these items, but in the back of your head you heard a voice telling you to resist. It’s not surprising, given it’s been seen as a concern for so many years.
Technological advances in the field have led to a rise in re-examining studies from years past. This is
giving many nutritionists and scientists the data they need to challenge published studies and norms.
There have been other studies that have said the same thing: Whole fat dairy is not as bad as the
Dietary Guidelines suggest.
Does all this research mean that anyone with heart health risks should go straight to the grocery store and fill the cart with all the dairy that had been previously off limits, or so you thought? Probably not. These are just a few studies reported that question the status quo in terms of dairy consumption. While the results are very intriguing, moderation is best in this case.
These aren’t the only studies that counter previous research that say whole dairy fat is bad for you.
In 2016, researchers at Tufts reported in the journal Circulation that people who consumed full-fat dairy had a much lower risk of developing diabetes. A second study, which tested 18,000 middle-age women, found that those who ate more whole-fat dairy had an eight percent lower chance of becoming obese over time compared to those who ate less.
In closing, this is great news overall for those who love whole-fat dairy. It’s also great that researchers
can thoughtfully and respectfully re-examine old research to either confirm those findings or provide
evidence to the contrary. Like consulting a doctor, having the best and most updated information allows us to make the best decisions for our health.
