Is low-fat dairy still the healthiest choice?
A study from Edith Cowan University has revealed that despite what is widely thought, there may not be any nutritional benefit to opting for low-fat dairy products over full-fat options.
The research published in January in the journal Nutrients also found that choosing full-fat dairy may be just as beneficial for heart health. For the study, researchers examined 860 WA teenagers aged from their early to late adolescence to discover whether opting for reduced-fat makes any difference.
“We have long been recommending people eat low-fat dairy on the assumption that because it has less calories and less saturated fat it is healthier for you, but there was very little out there in terms of good evidence that this is the case,” says study author Dr Therese O’Sullivan from the ECY’s School of Medical and Health Science.
Dr O’Sullivan and her team pulled data from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study, following women and their children at regular intervals. In this instance, they pooled data of the children – aged from14 to 17 – which included a food frequency questionnaire, based on the Australian food composition database.
The research found both low-fat and regular dairy had a similar impact on heart health. “Low and regular fat dairy intakes both displayed similar association with cardiometabolic risk factors,” the study said.
While supporters of low-fat dairy may argue that skim milk has fewer kilojoules, (meaning those who consume reduced fat will have a healthier weight), this research found no link between obesity and the type of dairy eaten in the teenagers in this study.
“Given that it has less calories per serve, it was assumed that low-fat dairy would help children and teenagers maintain a healthy weight, but we found that neither low-fat nor regular fat products increased obesity,” says Dr O’Sullivan.
While this study examined young people, O’Sullivan believes there may be a similar pattern in adults. “[Based on] my study results in particular, we can’t generalise because adolescence is a unique population, they’re growing and they’ve got hormonal changes,” she said. ”But our results match the majority of other evidence that has been done in adults previously that have shown that intake of full-fat dairy has not been associated with any increased metabolic or cardiovascular risks.”
O’Sullivan plans to conduct a dietary-based trial examining the effect of low-fat and regular dairy products over three months.
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