5/8/2017 Eatingcheesedoesnotraiseriskofheartattackorstroke,studyfinds|Society|TheGuardian

Eating cheese does not raise risk of heart

attack or stroke, study nds
Consumption of even full-fat dairy products does not increase risk, international team of experts says

Denis Campbell Health policy editor

Monday 8 May 2017 19.20BST

Consuming cheese, milk and yoghurt even full-fat versions does not increase the risk of
a heart attack or stroke, according to research that challenges the widely held belief that
dairy products can damage health.

The ndings, from an international team of experts, contradict the view that dairy
products can be harmful because of their high saturated fat content. The experts dismiss
that fear as a misconception [and] mistaken belief.

The results come from a new meta-analysis of 29 previous studies of whether dairy
products increase the risk of death from any cause and from either serious heart problems

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or cardiovascular disease. The study concluded that such foodstus did not raise the risk
of any of those events and had a neutral impact on human health.

This meta-analysis showed there were no associations between total dairy, high- and
low-fat dairy, milk and the health outcomes including all-cause mortality, coronary heart
disease or cardiovascular disease, says the report, published in the European Journal of
Epidemiology.

Ian Givens, a professor of food chain nutrition at Reading University, who was one of the
researchers, said: Theres quite a widespread but mistaken belief among the public that
dairy products in general can be bad for you, but thats a misconception. While it is a
widely held belief, our research shows that thats wrong.

Theres been a lot of publicity over the last ve to 10 years about how saturated fats
increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and a belief has grown up that they must
increase the risk, but they dont.

However, the governments health advisers urged consumers to continue to exercise

caution about eating too many products high in saturated fat and to stick to low-fat
versions instead.

Dairy products form an important part of a healthy balanced diet; however, many are
high in saturated fat and salt. Were all consuming too much of both, increasing our risk of
heart disease, said a spokesman for Public Health England. We recommend choosing
lower-fat varieties of milk and dairy products or eating smaller amounts to reduce
saturated fat and salt in the diet.

Givens and colleagues from Reading, Copenhagen University in Denmark and Wageningen
University in the Netherlands analysed 29 studies involving 938,465 participants from
around the world undertaken over the last 35 years, including ve done in the UK.

No associations were found for total (high-fat/low-fat) dairy and milk with the health
outcomes of mortality, CHD or CVD, they said. In fact, they added, fermented dairy
products may potentially slightly lower the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Doctors, public health experts and ocial healthy eating guidelines have for many years
identied saturated fats as potentially harmful for heart and cardiovascular health and
advised consumers to minimise their intake.

That has led to consumers increasingly buying lower-fat versions of dairy products. For
example, 85% of all milk sold in the UK is now semi-skimmed or skimmed.

Givens said consumers were shunning full-fat versions of cheese, milk or yoghurt in the
mistaken view that they could harm their health. Young people, especially young women,
were now often drinking too little milk as a result of that concern, which could damage the
development of their bones and lead to conditions in later life including osteoporosis, or
brittle bones, he said. Consuming too little milk can deprive young people of calcium.
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Pregnant women who drank too little milk could be increasing the risk of their child
having neuro-developmental diculties, which could aect their cognitive abilities and
stunt their growth, Givens added.

The most recent National Diet and Nutrition Survey, the governments occasional
snapshot of eating habits, found that dairy products, including butter, accounted for the
highest proportion of saturated fat consumption in British diets 27%, compared with
meats 24%. But if butter was not counted then dairy products together were the second
largest source of saturated fat, at 22%.

Saturated fat is a vital part of diet. The NDNS found that adults typically got 34.6% of their
total energy from fats as a whole, just below the 35% the government recommends.
However, while total fat consumption was just within target, saturated fats still made up
an unhealthily large proportion of total food energy 12.6%, against the recommended
maximum of 11%.

Givens said: Our meta-analysis included an unusually large number of participants. We

are condent that our results are robust and accurate.

The research was part-funded by the three pro-dairy groups Global Dairy Platform, Dairy
Research Institute and Dairy Australia but they had no inuence over it, the paper said.
Givens is an adviser to the Food Standards Agency.

Topics
Health
Heart attack/Stroke/Milk/Cheese/Medical research/news

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