The Bottom Line on Full-Fat Dairy
If you’re a long-time reader, you know that science by headlines really annoys me because they often distort the findings of the research papers to make them seem more important than they are—gotta get that next click! It doesn’t help that research institutions send out press releases that contribute to the hype of their research findings. Such is the case with the two papers I reviewed this week.
In the first paper, researchers claimed blood values of fatty acids found in high-fat dairy products potentially decreased the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in two large cohorts. Of the 3,333 subjects who were free of diabetes when the study began, 277 developed diabetes after 15 years of follow-up. That seems like a low number compared to the general population, although these were studies on healthcare professionals who might have a better lifestyle than the rest of the population.
The problem is that they tested the blood only for dairy fats at the beginning of the study. While they did administer the food-frequency questionnaire every four years, there’s no way of knowing how the dairy fats changed over the years. At best, this is a large study that shows some form of correlation between dairy intake and type 2 diabetes but tells us nothing to help us decide whether we should change the type of dairy we eat.
In the second paper, they also used a similar food-frequency questionnaire to identify what types of dairy products the subjects used. As I’ve said many times, these are fraught with potential errors. On top of that, the difference in body weight gain between those who used the most low- and no-fat dairy products and those who used the most high-fat dairy products was about a tenth of a pound. If you account for the initial BMI and body weight, the results are about two tenths of a pound. That’s not exactly exciting over 11 years, is it?
The Bottom Line
They didn’t state the obvious, but I will. It could be that full-fat dairy keeps women (and probably men) feeling satisfied longer so they don’t eat as much. That’s what fat can do. But we can’t really know because researchers didn’t measure diet carefully enough in either study to be able to analyze it. In these cases, they didn’t collect the right type of data that could really answer the questions; thus results were not very significant.
It always comes down to six words: Eat less. Eat better. Move more. If you choose to eat dairy, you can’t overeat any type because while it may take more of the low-fat foods to reach the number of calories in high-fat dairy, eating too much is just what it says: eat too much and you’ll gain weight.
What are you prepared to do today?
Reminder: Taking Back Your Muscle, Part 2: Protein is tomorrow at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. If you want clarity on creatine, amino acid, peptides, and protein and how to use them for your health, buy the webinar by 11 a.m. ET to watch live, or you can watch the replay at your convenience.
Dr. Chet
References:
1. circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2016/03/22/CIRCULATIONAHA.115.018410
2. Am J Clin Nutr 2016;103:979–88.
