New perspectives on dairy and cardiovascular health

This month's Paper of the Month is from Proceedings of the Nutrition Society and is entitled ‘Milk and dairy produce and CVD: new perspectives on dairy and cardiovascular health'. Authors, Julie A. Lovegrove and Ditte A. Hobbs, University of Reading, discuss the evidence on dairy product intake and cardiovascular disease risk and implications for dietary advice. One key recommendation for decreasing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk is to reduce saturated fat intake to less than 10% total energy, yet the majority of the UK population are exceeding this level. As dairy products contribute over 27% of total dietary saturated fat intake, recommendations to reduce or eliminate their intake is a common approach for CVD risk reduction. However, evidence suggests that milk and dairy consumption is associated with minimal impact on CVD risk, so targeting their exclusion is not an evidenced-based strategy for disease prevention. Meta-analysis of large cohort studies has identified inverse associations between milk consumption and stroke, and overall CVD risk, with no effect on coronary heart disease risk. While this may seem counter-intuitive with respect to the high SFA content of these foods, new research suggests that other components within dairy products may be reducing the negative effects of the SFA on cardiovascular health. In relation to the total fat content of dairy foods, there is insufficient comparative data on the effects of whole and low-fat dairy products, to suppor...
Source: The Nutrition Society - Category: Nutrition Authors: Source Type: news