Whole Fat Dairy May Actually Be Good For You

Supermarket shelves are teeming with non-fat, low-fat products beckoning health-conscious consumers. Now, a new study suggests its okay if a carton of whole-fat milk winds up in the shopping cart.

For decades, nutritionists have told us to avoid whole fat dairy products if we want to eat “right”. Now, new research suggests that full-fat dairy products may actually help in the fight against diabetes and weight gain.

A study at Tufts University published in the April issue of Circulation made the surprising findings, challenging decades of advice to the contrary.

Researchers looked at 15 years worth of data for 3,333 adults and found those who had the highest levels of dairy fat in their blood had a 46% lower risk of developing diabetes. Their findings dovetail on another study in which Swedish researchers found men who consumed high-fat dairy products, like butter and cream, were less likely to become obese, and the case for full fat becomes even stronger.

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian led the Tufts study.

“I think these findings together with those from other studies do call for a change in the policy of recommending only low-fat dairy products,” he told Time Magazine. “There is no prospective human evidence that people who eat low-fat dairy do better than people who eat whole-fat dairy.”