For many years, people have been told to avoid eating too much fat, especially from foods like cheese and cream.
Health experts often said that high-fat dairy could be bad for the heart or waistline. But now, new research from Sweden is challenging that idea—at least when it comes to brain health.
A new study published in the journal Neurology has found a link between eating more full-fat cheese and cream and a lower chance of developing dementia. This doesn’t prove that these foods prevent dementia, but it does suggest there may be a helpful connection.
The study looked at high-fat cheese like cheddar, Brie, and Gouda, which have more than 20% fat, and high-fat cream products like whipping cream and double cream, which often have 30–40% fat. These are the regular, full-fat versions commonly sold in stores.
Dr. Emily Sonestedt and her team at Lund University in Sweden wanted to better understand how these foods might affect brain health. They studied nearly 28,000 adults in Sweden, with an average age of 58 at the beginning of the study. These people were followed for about 25 years. Over that time, just over 3,200 people developed dementia.
To understand what people ate, participants kept a food diary for one week and also answered questions about their diet over the past few years. They also talked with researchers about how they usually cooked their meals.
When the researchers compared people who ate more than 50 grams (about two slices) of high-fat cheese each day with those who ate less than 15 grams, they found something interesting. About 10% of the high cheese eaters developed dementia, while about 13% of the low cheese eaters did. That’s a noticeable difference.
Even after adjusting for things like age, sex, education, and overall diet quality, the researchers still found that people who ate more high-fat cheese had a 13% lower risk of developing dementia. The link was even stronger for vascular dementia, where the risk was 29% lower among the high cheese group.
There was also a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease among people who ate more cheese, but only in those who didn’t carry a gene known as APOE e4, which increases the risk for Alzheimer’s.
The team also looked at high-fat cream. They compared people who had at least 20 grams daily—about one and a half tablespoons—to people who didn’t eat any. Those who consumed cream had a 16% lower risk of dementia.
However, not all dairy products showed the same benefits. There were no helpful links found for low-fat cheese or cream, milk (whether full-fat or not), butter, or fermented dairy products like yogurt, kefir, or buttermilk. Dr. Sonestedt noted that this suggests not all dairy is the same when it comes to supporting brain health.
The study does have some limits. All participants were Swedish, and Swedish people often eat cheese uncooked and separate from meat. In other countries like the U.S., cheese is often eaten melted or with processed meat, which could change its effect on health. This means more research is needed in other parts of the world to see if the findings are the same.
In conclusion, this study suggests that eating full-fat cheese and cream might help protect the brain and reduce the risk of dementia, especially vascular dementia.
But because this is just an observational study, it can’t say for sure that these foods directly prevent memory loss. Still, it raises important questions and opens the door for more research into how certain types of fat might actually support brain health as we age.
Copyright © 2025 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
