Is Whole Milk Dairy Better Than Low Fat?

There has been a lot of controversy lately about the health benefits of a low fat diet as opposed to a high fat diet.

The American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association and American Cancer Society, all recommend low-fat or no-fat dairy. The US Department of Agriculture, in their nutrition guidelines for Americans, also advises, “Dairy Group choices should be fat-free or low-fat.”

The advice to eat low-fat foods, including dairy, dates back to the 1950s. But eating a low fat diet is not scientifically supported. If you’re choosing low-fat, you are not only missing out on taste, flavor and satisfaction, but you’re missing out on valuable benefits to your health . There are many benefits that come from eating foods with healthy fats.

Prior to World War II, skim milk was not sold in stores, but rather thrown away or used as feed for chickens, hogs and calves. During World War II, dried milk powder became a preferred relief food, with the government asking U.S. dairies to produce 200 million pounds of dry skim milk powder for America’s allies.

In 1953, University of Minnesota professor Ancel Keys published a flawed paper that served as the basis for nearly all of the initial scientific support for the Cholesterol Theory, which is the notion that eating saturated fat raises your cholesterol levels and leads to heart disease.

The nutrition community at that time completely accepted the hypothesis, and encouraged the public to cut out butter, red meat, animal fats, eggs, dairy and other “artery clogging” fats from their diets. This was a radical change at that time and is still very much in force today.

Accumulating research is showing that this switch to low-fat has not only caused rates of chronic disease to skyrocket; it has also been making people gain weight.

The Case for Full-Fat Dairy:

A study published in the European Journal of Nutrition looked at the relationship between the consumption of dairy fat and high-fat dairy foods, obesity and cardiometabolic disease.

Those who ate full-fat dairy were no more likely to develop heart disease or type 2 diabetes than those who ate low-fat dairy. Further, those who ate full-fat dairy were less likely to be obese.

A separate study similarly found that low intake of dairy fat (no butter and low-fat milk and seldom/never whipping cream) was associated with a higher risk of developing central obesity while a high intake of dairy fat (butter, high-fat milk and whipping cream) was associated with a lower risk of central obesity.

Still more research showed women who ate at least one serving of full-fat dairy a day gained 30% less weight over a nine-year period than women who ate only low-fat (or no) dairy products.

In addition to weight benefits, previous studies have also shown that consuming full-fat dairy may help reduce your risk of:

1. Cancer: Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a type of fat found naturally in cow’s milk, significantly lowers the risk of cancer. In one study, those who ate at least four servings of high-fat dairy foods each day had a 41% lower risk of bowel cancer than those who ate less than one. Each increment of two servings of dairy products reduced a woman’s colon cancer risk by 13%. Milk from grass fed cows have a higher level of CLA.

2. Heart Disease: People who ate the most full-fat dairy were less likely to die from cardiovascular disease, according to a 16-year study of Australian adults.

3. Type 2 Diabetes: People who ate eight portions of full-fat dairy products a day cut their risk of diabetes by nearly 25% compared to those who ate fewer portions.

Omega-3 Fats Reduce Inflammation & Offer Heart Protection:

Your body needs many types of fat to function properly, which you just can’t get if you are eating a low fat diet. The fats you want to avoid are synthetic fats, such as trans fats and oxidized, rancid omega-6 polyunsaturated fats, such as those found in vegetable oils.

Research presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 64th Annual Scientific Session in San Diego, CA, found that taking a high-dose omega-3 fat supplement, in this case 4 grams daily for six months, was highly beneficial for people who had suffered a heart attack. Those taking the omega-3 had lower levels of inflammation as well as improved cardiac structure and heart functioning compared to those taking a placebo.

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