Fat Wins Again!

With Science To Support It

Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash

I am fortunate to be of Northern European descent, which means I can eat dairy and just about any type of food without worry of an allergic reaction. I’m thankful for this fact, as I eat dairy products daily. Whole milk, Greek yogurt, and cheese are staples of my diet and have been for quite some time, and I’ve no plans to stop consuming them. Unfortunately, the low-fat dogma has made a severe dent in the dairy industry. Look at the yogurt section the next time you’re at the grocery store. The majority of the products will take great pains to tell you how little or no fat they contain, and there will be no shortage of them, to be sure. However, they must compensate for the loss of flavor when the fat is removed by adding sugar because there is no chomping at the bit to buy plain, non-fat yogurt. Don’t just take my word for it; much research has been done on the subject.

Reasons to choose whole milk dairy products

Taste and texture! In my opinion, this is the reason. Fat is flavor, and if you care about enjoying the food you consume instead of just using it as a vehicle for nutrients, this is right up your alley.

Feelings of satiety. The combination of fat and protein is a hunger killer. The presence of fat in the small intestine slows gastric emptying, stimulates the release of many gastrointestinal hormones, and suppresses appetite and energy intake as a result of the digestion of fats into free fatty acids; the effects of free fatty acids are, in turn, dependent on their chain length (1). Simply put, fat, especially in the form of a short or long-chain triglyceride, takes a while to get digested and signals your body that you don’t have to eat as much through the release of hormones.

Recent studies have called into question the dietary guidelines by major organizations such as the American Heart Association and the USDA. Once again, these organizations cite the amount of saturated fat and extra calories as a reason to avoid these products. However, this reasoning is becoming weaker by the day. If eating a low-fat diet is supposed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes, why did these numbers increase when low-fat diets were widely adopted (2)? Other studies show that full-fat dairy doesn’t cause obesity (3), contribute to diabetes (4), or cardiovascular disease, and may help prevent them! (5,6). The saturated fat boogeyman doesn’t seem so scary once the facts are reviewed. These studies cited above, along with many others, support the hypothesis that high-fat dairy is not typically associated with an increase in type II diabetes, weight gain, or cardiovascular disease. This quote by Dr. Mozaffarian sums it up nicely.

“In the absence of any evidence for the superior effects of low-fat dairy and some evidence that there may be better benefits of whole-fat dairy products for diabetes, why are we recommending only low-fat dairy? We should be telling people to have a variety of dairy products and remove the recommendation about fat content.”

1. Little TJ, Horowitz M, Feinle-Bisset C. Modulation by high-fat diets of gastrointestinal function and hormones associated with the regulation of energy intake: implications for the pathophysiology of obesity. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Sep;86(3):531-41. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/86.3.531. PMID: 17823414.

2. Jessri M, Mirmiran P, Golzarand M, Rashidkhani B, Hosseini-Esfahani F, Azizi F. Comparison of trends in dietary pattern in Iran, Middle Eastern and North African countries from 1961 to 2005. Pajoohandeh Journal. 2011;16(1):1–10.

3. Kratz M, Baars T, Guyenet S. The relationship between high-fat dairy consumption and obesity, cardiovascular, and metabolic disease. European journal of nutrition. 2013;52(1):1–24.

4. Gijsbers L, Ding EL, Malik VS, de Goede J, Geleijnse JM, Soedamah-Muthu SS. Consumption of dairy foods and diabetes incidence: a dose-response meta-analysis of observational studies. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2016:ajcn123216.

5. Alexander DD, Bylsma LC, Vargas AJ, Cohen SS, Doucette A, Mohamed M. et al. Dairy consumption and CVD: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The British journal of nutrition. 2016;115(4):737–50.

6. Qin LQ, Xu JY, Han SF, Zhang ZL, Zhao YY, Szeto IM. Dairy consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease: an updated meta‐analysis of prospective cohort studies. Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition. 2015;24(1):90–100.