Saturated Fat in Dairy and Heart Health
Another study fuels the debate on saturated fat.
The recommendation to limit (not eliminate!) the intake of saturated fat for cardiovascular disease prevention is a fairly ubiquitous feature of most healthy eating guidelines, including Dietary Guidelines for Americans and Canada’s Food Guide. To achieve this goal, the consumption of reduced-fat dairy foods is encouraged. But there is emerging evidence from clinical and epidemiologic studies that not all saturated fatty acids are created equal; those from different sources may affect heart health differently, as well.
For instance, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition recently publisheda study that gleaned data from 2,391 participants in the Framingham Offspring Study. Researchers started by analyzing two sets of 3-day diet records provided between 4 and 7 years apart, then following up at 4 and 8 years after.
The team discovered that women with the highest quintile of saturated fat from dairy sources at baseline had lower BMIs and percentage of body fat over the next 4 years compared with those in the lowest quintile for dairy saturated fat intake.
In men but not in women, intakes of saturated from dairy at baseline were positively associated with blood HDL-cholesterol concentrations and inversely associated with triglyceride, C-reactive protein and fibrinogen (three risk factors for heart disease) measured over the next 4 years. Both men and women with higher fat intake from dairy like milk and yogurt also had on average larger HDL and LDL particle sizes, which may be heart protective.
On the one hand, these results provide further support to the paradigm that the food matrix should be factored in when considering the impact of dietary fat on health. The nutritional makeup of dairy might make their saturated fat less harmful to health than the saturated fat you’d find in a hamburger.
On the other hand, data from this study have limitations that should not be overlooked. Mainly, these results just demonstrate an association as causal effects cannot be inferred from an observational study like this. It also doesn’t tease out if the source of the dairy-derived saturated fat matters. If someone gets more of their saturated fat from plain yogurt than processed cheese slices is there a difference in cardiovascular disease risk? More controlled intervention studies are needed for a better understanding of how saturated fats from different sources impact health outcomes.
See also: Dairy Fat Good for Heart Health
Matthew Kadey, MS, RD
Matthew Kadey, MS, RD, is a James Beard Award–winning food journalist, dietitian and author of the cookbook Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sport + Adventure (VeloPress 2016). He has written for dozens of magazines, including Runner’s World, Men’s Health, Shape, Men’s Fitness and Muscle and Fitness.
