Evidence linking dairy consumption to increased risk of death among US adults is inconsistent.
The consumption of dairy products has long been thought to increase the risk of death, particularly from coronary heart disease (CHD), cerebrovascular disease, and cancer, because of dairy’s relatively high levels of saturated fat. Yet evidence for any such link, especially among US adults, is inconsistent. With the exception of milk, which appears to increase the risk of CHD, dairy products have been found to protect against both total mortality and mortality from cerebrovascular causes, according to research presented today at ESC Congress 2018(1), the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology. Therefore, current guidelines to limit consumption of dairy products, especially cheese and yogurt, should be relaxed; at the same time, the drinking of non-fat or low-fat milk should be recommended, especially for those who consume large quantities of milk.
“A meta-analysis of 29 cohort studies(2) published in 2017 found no association between the consumption of dairy products and either cardiovascular disease (CVD) or all-cause mortality,” said Professor Maciej Banach, from the Department of Hypertension at Medical University of Lodz, Poland. “Yet a large 20-year prospective study of Swedish adults(3), also published in 2017, found that higher consumption of milk was associated with a doubling of mortality risk, including from CVD, in the cohort of women.”
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