Cheese is a delicious dairy product that is rich in saturated fat. As a result, the dietary guidelines recommend limiting cheese consumption to prevent raising cholesterol.
Cheese and Your Heart:
Danish scientists conducted a three-month randomized controlled trial to find out whether the guidelines limiting full fat cheese are worth following. The 164 volunteers had at least two features of the metabolic syndrome.
They were randomly assigned to a diet containing regular-fat cheese, reduced-fat cheese or no cheese, just bread and jam. At the end of the 12 weeks, there were no significant differences in LDL cholesterol among the groups. Beneficial HDL cholesterol trended higher on the full fat cheese diet compared to the high-carb diet, though that difference was not statistically significant. The researchers conclude, “for most individuals, it is reasonable to include regular-fat cheese as part of a healthy diet.”
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Oct., 2016
The French Paradox:
While Americans were eating low-fat yogurt and cheese the French continued to consume Brie and Camembert. Trying to convince French people to give up full-fat cheese would be fruitless. Since their incidence of heart disease is lower than ours, perhaps the new Danish research will convince Americans that adding cheese to a Mediterranean-sytle diet is perfectly reasonable.
The Danish researchers summarzie their findings:
“In conclusion, our results indicate that the consumption of regular-fat cheese in high daily amounts does not affect serum lipid concentrations, fasting glucose and insulin concentrations, blood pressure, or waist circumference differently than do reduced-fat cheese or carbohydrate-rich foods in a population with 2 or more MetS [metabolic syndrome] risk factors.”
Old Beliefs Die Hard:
Convincing people that the dietary advice they have been given for the last 50 years might be misguided creates a lot of confusion and resistance. That is why we encourage people to look at the latest research on saturated fat. Here are some links to the new data:
Should You Shun Saturated Fat to Prevent A Heart Attack?
Is Butter Better? Why Butter is Back with a Bullet!
