For decades, supermarket shelves have been filled with low-fat and fat-free dairy products because health experts believed reducing saturated fat would protect the heart.
Many people avoided whole milk and full-fat yogurt, thinking these foods would automatically lead to weight gain or high cholesterol. A new study from Canada challenges this long-standing belief and suggests the story may be more complicated.
Researchers at the University of Toronto wanted to know whether eating full-fat dairy every day would actually harm people’s health. Their work, published in the Journal of Nutrition, followed 74 adults with overweight or obesity for 12 weeks.
Participants were divided into three groups with different eating plans. Some ate relatively little dairy while limiting calories. Others consumed three servings of full-fat dairy each day while keeping calorie intake stable.
A third group also ate three daily servings of full-fat dairy without strict calorie restriction. All participants were encouraged to follow Canada’s national healthy eating guidelines.
When the researchers compared the groups at the end of the study, they found something surprising. People who regularly ate full-fat dairy did not gain more weight than those eating less dairy. Their body fat, cholesterol, blood fats, and energy metabolism were also very similar. In addition, there was no evidence that eating more full-fat dairy increased insulin resistance.
Instead, participants consuming more dairy had healthier intakes of protein, calcium, and vitamin D. They also showed improvements in blood pressure. These nutrients are especially important because calcium supports strong bones, protein helps maintain muscles, and vitamin D assists the body in absorbing calcium.
Why might full-fat dairy behave differently from what scientists once expected? Professor Harvey Anderson points to the dairy matrix. Milk, yogurt, and cheese are complex foods containing proteins, fats, minerals, and many other natural compounds packaged together.
Scientists believe this structure changes how nutrients are released during digestion and may reduce some of the harmful effects predicted from saturated fat alone.
The findings may be particularly useful for older adults. As people age, they often eat smaller meals while needing more protein to preserve muscle strength. Full-fat dairy provides concentrated nutrition in familiar foods that many older adults already enjoy.
The researchers caution that this study should not be interpreted as a reason to eat unlimited amounts of cheese, butter, or cream. Healthy eating still depends on balance, portion size, and consuming a wide variety of foods. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and lean protein remain essential parts of a nutritious diet.
Because this research lasted only 12 weeks and included a relatively small number of participants, longer studies are needed before dietary guidelines change. Even so, the findings contribute to an increasing number of studies suggesting that full-fat dairy may not increase health risks as much as previously believed.
The results were published in the Journal of Nutrition.
This research offers useful evidence but should be viewed alongside many other nutrition studies. Its randomized design strengthens the findings, yet the limited number of participants means the conclusions cannot be applied to everyone.
Overall, the study supports moving away from judging foods by single nutrients and toward considering the health effects of whole foods within an overall healthy diet.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies that whole grain foods could help increase longevity, and vitamin D supplements strongly reduce cancer death.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies about natural coconut sugar that could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness, and whey and soy protein may reduce inflammation in older people.
Source: University of Toronto.
