Full-fat milk said to reduce risk of diabetes
Skim milk, soy milk, almond milk, light milk… decades worth of dietary advice and advertising have told us to steer clear of full-fat options. The reduced fat content was hailed as being beneficial to health and a key component in managing a healthy weight level. This hasn’t just been limited to milk. Major dietary guidelines have recommended low-fat dairy products – as well as the avoidance of whole-fat dairy. Those guidelines were based on predictions regarding bone health and cardiovascular disease.
However, two new studies have revealed this may not be the case at all. Scientists determined that people who consume full-fat dairy generally weigh less than those who drink skim. Furthermore, those who drink whole milk are 46 per cent less likely to develop diabetes than their low-fat favouring counterparts.
The news comes after the World Health Organisation reported that the disease now affects 422 million people worldwide. The number of adults with the disease has quadrupled in just 34 years with nearly one in 11 people now estimated to have it, according to the WHO.
According to a team of Tufts University scientists, neither low-fat nor whole-fat dairy foods were found to have major effects on traditional heart disease risk factors. The scientists analysed the blood of 3,333 adults participating in the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which was taken over the course of 15 years
They determined that three dairy biomarkers – plasma 15:0 and 17:0, and trans-16:1 n-7 – as well as fatty acids, are responsible for the lower incidence of diabetes. “These results provide new evidence on associations of dairy-derived circulating fatty acids and risk of diabetes” they said.
In a separate study from Brigham and Women's Hospital, scientists from Harvard University and Karolinska Institute found that women who consumed the most high-fat dairy products were actually less likely to become obese.
Dr Aseem Malhorta, a cardiologist in Surrey, UK, recently told Men’s Health that he encourages his patients to eat fat. ‘These days I make a point of telling my patients – many of whom are coping with debilitating heart problems – to avoid anything bearing the label “low fat",’ Dr Malhorta said.
"Better instead, I tell them, to embrace full fat dairy and other saturated fats within the context of a healthy eating plan.”
You hear the doctor. It might be time to ditch the low fat ice cream and embrace full cream goodness in all its glory.
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