Study backs heart-healthy effect of dairy fat

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 6/9/10

[NormsRevenge]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Eating dairy foods could help protect your heart, new research from Sweden suggests.

Dairy foods are a major source of saturated fat in the diet, which has been associated with heart disease. However, there's some evidence that dairy foods could actually benefit heart health, for example by lowering blood pressure or reducing cholesterol levels, Dr. Eva Warensjo of Uppsala University and her colleagues note in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

To get a clearer sense of people's intake of fat from dairy and heart disease risk, Warensjo and her team measured blood levels of two biomarkers of milk fat in 444 heart attack patients and 556 healthy controls. The substances, pentadecanoic acid and heptadecanoic acid, indicate how much dairy fat a person has been eating.

The researchers found that people with the highest levels of milk fat biomarkers, suggesting they consumed the most dairy fat, were actually at lower risk of heart attack; for women, the risk was reduced by 26 percent, while for men risk was 9 percent lower.

...

Dairy foods contain a number of potentially beneficial substances, such as calcium, vitamin D, and potassium, Warensjo and her team note. They have also been shown to increase people's levels of "good" HDL cholesterol.

"The exact mechanism behind these associations cannot be deduced from the present study, but the range of bioactive components present in the food matrix of milk products as well as associated lifestyle factors may all have contributed to the observed associations," the researchers conclude.

[NormsRevenge]

sounds good to me. I have never cut back usage.

[trisham]

I use cream in my coffee, and eat regular cheese.

[SLB]

I put raw whole milk on my cereal every morning and eat yogurt made from the same milk every evening before bed. I am 60 and my total cholesterol is 142.

[NormsRevenge]

Hey, gimme back my cheese!

[NormsRevenge]

and No, that is not my sister.

Homemade cheese by Mrs Ida Tjärnberg at her mountain farm
in northern Sweden. 1958. Swedish National Heritage Board

[libertarian27]

The skim milk board is going to have a hissy...

So now ‘low-fat’ equals death...
(can’t wait for next week’s science!)

Julia Child had it right: Everything in Moderation.

[NormsRevenge]

I miss fresh whole milk.. I was never so healthy as when I grew-up in farm country and ate real whole foods..

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

FORTY YEARS of anti-milk fat propaganda shot to hell!

Butter is gooood!

[AAABEST]

Ode to the Mammoth Cheese

By James McIntyre

We have seen the Queen of cheese, Laying quietly at your ease, Gently fanned by evening breeze -- Thy fair form no flies dare seize.

All gaily dressed soon you'll go To the great Provincial Show, To be admired by many a beau In the city of Toronto.

Cows numerous as a swarm of bees -- Or as the leaves upon the trees -- It did require to make thee please, And stand unrivalled Queen of Cheese.

May you not receive a scar as We have heard that Mr. Harris Intends to send you off as far as The great World's show at Paris.

Of the youth -- beware of these -- For some of them might rudely squeeze And bite your cheek; then songs or glees We could not sing o' Queen of Cheese.

We'rt thou suspended from baloon, You'd cast a shade, even at noon; Folks would think it was the moon About to fall and crush them soon.

[NormsRevenge]

We used to haul fresh milk to the local creamery, brought curd hope for the pigs. I grew up on LandO’Lakes butter

[NormsRevenge]

home=hope

[SLB]

I got a heck of a spanking one time over butter. I was churning milk in a glass churn with paddles and a hand crank. I had a pretty good sized ball of butter spinning around when I gave the handle a good hard sin and “BANG” the ball of butter got caught between the paddles and jar and broke the jar. I must have been around 5 or 6 when this happened.

We still use butter instead of margerine, Cabot Cheese from Wal Mart is the best sharp cheddar I have found.

[SparkyBass]

It's CHEEEEESE, Gromit! Ohhhh, I could go for a nice Wensleydale! I'm just crackers about CHEESE!

[JPG]

My maternal grandparents lived to 96 and 94 while eating loads of milk, butter, eggs, cheese, bacon and red meat. I’ll follow their example.

[Graybeard58]

I have almost completely stopped drinking whole milk.

Since I discovered how great Half&Half tastes!

[Red Badger]

[Graybeard58]

The skim milk board is going to have a hissy...

I watched a show on the Discovery Channel about milk and milk processing. It seems that early in the history of commercial processing, that skim milk, a by product of the process, was deemed unfit for human consumption and was used to feed hogs. I'm still of the same opinion.

[time4good]

"I use cream in my coffee, and eat regular cheese."

As opposed to non-regular cheese? [rimshot here]

[EBH]

I drink whole milk...