World Heart Day: Study says diet rich in dairy may be linked to lower risk of heart disease

A diet rich in dairy fat may be linked to lower risk of heart disease, a new study has found.

A study done on a Swedish cohort and published in the journal Plos Medicine – the researchers have challenged the view that dairy products should be avoided due to saturated fat.

The study was done on 4,150 Swedish adults, with the majority being women with a median age of 60.5 years over a period of 16.6 years. The researchers recorded 578 events of cardiovascular disease and 676 deaths. It noted that the risk of cardiovascular disease was lower among those with higher intakes of dairy fat than compared with low intakes.

Moreover, there was no increased risk of deaths in those with higher intakes of dairy fat.

Then the researchers followed it up with a meta-analysis combining the Swedish study with similar studies from other countries such as the US, UK and Denmark, involving nearly 43,000 participants.

Hence, the broader analysis dairy products consumption to lower risk of heart diseases, with the George Institute deeming it the “most comprehensive evidence to date on the relationship between this more objective measure of dairy fat consumption, risk of cardiovascular disease and death.”