Butter, cheese and milk labelled “low-fat” have long been marketed to appeal to people keen to reduce their risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
But naturally occurring fats in dairy - trans fats to distinguish from artificial hydrogenated variants found in processed food - do not make heart disease more likely, UK-based scientists say in an analysis published in the journal Nutrition Research in May.
The team looked into 22 studies taking in health data for thousands of Europeans and North Americans, finding that natural trans fats “behave very differently in the body from the industrial kind.”
“The trans fats in your morning milk, yogurt, butter or cheese are not the same as the ones from industrial partially hydrogenated fats,” said Ian Givens of the University of Reading.
Givens hopes that his team’s work can reassure people that dairy can be safely consumed as part of a balanced diet.
People need to consume fats - including the saturated kind found in dairy and meat - as part of a balanced diet, health experts agree.
The team’s research, which was funded by the National Dairy Council in the US, echoes previous work showing the health benefits of other natural fats, the unsaturated types found in avocados, olive oil, nuts and fish.
“At least some types of full-fat dairy may not be as concerning as once thought,” according to Harvard Medical School, pointing out that fermented dairy such as yogurt and cheese could be “slightly protective against cardiovascular disease.”
Last year the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that there has never been a convincing association made between dairy consumption containing any level of fat and cardiovascular disease risk.
