Milking it on full-fat dairy
Full-fat milk and cheese aren’t the foods you’d normally associate with weight loss — but they might not be as bad for your figure, or health, as you think.
For while they do contain saturated fat, dairy experts suggest that fats from milk may not be quite the dietary demons other saturated fats are thought to be.
“The term ‘full-fat’ sometimes gets confused with ‘full of fat’, and in fact, dairy isn’t full of fat at all,” says dietitian Dr Anne Mullen. “Whole milk, for example, isn’t classified as being a high-fat food. Dairy isn’t just fat, it contains a huge range of nutrients. Milk is high in calcium, B vitamins and iodine.
“So if you’re cutting out dairy in an effort to reduce calories or fat, you’re cutting out a whole range of really important nutrients.”
Although TV personality Khloe Kardashian said she lost nearly a stone by going dairy-free, research suggests a dairy-packed diet may be the best way to shed the pounds.
A number of studies have found that consuming dairy, even the full-fat variety, may aid weight loss and reduce the risk of health conditions, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
Research into the effect of eating dairy is ongoing, but two of the notable preliminary findings involve the way dairy calcium increases the amount of fat the body excretes, and how unique dairy fatty acids may be associated with reduced disease risk.
The calcium theory suggests that the more dairy calcium you include in your diet, the less fat will be absorbed by the digestive system, meaning that when you eat dairy products, their calories may not all count.
Danish scientist Professor Arne Astrup has found that if a person is fed a high cheese or milk diet, their faeces contain more fat than those of a person eating the same amount of calories whose diet doesn’t contain much dairy.
Astrup has said: “Dietary calcium has the potential to increase faecal fat excretion to an extent that could be relevant for prevention of weight gain.”
Mullen says the majority of studies show dairy consumption has no association, or a protective association, against body weight and body fatness.
“Consuming dairy hasn’t been associated with obesity in the big studies,” she stresses.
Mullen says the key question is, if people eat higher fat dairy products, are the extra calories not as much of a problem because the dairy calcium leads to more fat, and therefore calories, being excreted?
“It’s really interesting as a hypothesis, but we’ve yet to confirm it,” she stresses.
The official guidance is to choose skimmed or semi-skimmed dairy varieties. So with the more energy-dense, or high-calorie dairy foods like cheese, it’s advised that people stick to recommended portion sizes (around 25g of cheddar, which is the size of a small matchbox, for an adult).
“But we need to be more considered about the foods saturated fat comes from — when it comes to dairy, there’s a lot more going on than just saturated fat,” says Mullen.
“There’s something special about dairy. It contains saturated fat, of course, but it contains other nutrients and some very unique saturated fatty acids, and the whole dairy package appears to have a neutral, or in fact, a protective effect on heart disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity.
“That’s the take-home message.”
