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By M. Mary Pennell
SAN ANTONIO, Mar 02 (Reuters Health) - Drinking at least four glasses of reduced-fat milk a day may decrease your risk of heart attacks, scientists reported here Thursday.
But not all dairy products have a "heart-healthy" aspect, said researcher Dr. Mark A. Pereira. He said high-fat dairy products such as whole milk actually raise LDL (or "bad") cholesterol. The beneficial dairy products are "those that contain 2% or less fat," he said in an interview with Reuters Health. Whole milk contains 4% fat.
He said, too, that those who consumed four or more servings of dairy products were on average "about 40% to 60% less likely to be obese."
One explanation for the observed benefit of dairy products may be that people who drink milk are "less likely to drink soda pop and other highly sugared drinks," said Pereira, at the American Heart Association's 41st Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.
The findings come from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, which followed 2,909 black and white volunteers aged 18 to 30. The study participants, who lived in Birmingham, Alabama; Chicago, Illinois; Minneapolis, Minnesota; or Oakland, California had five clinic exams in the 10-year period between 1985-1986 and 1995-1996. They were also interviewed about their diet history.
Pereira, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, said that people who ate or drank the highest level of dairy products, meaning four or more servings daily, were likely to be leaner, have lower blood pressure, higher levels of so-called good cholesterol, and less diabetes.
Importantly, Pereira said, consumption of dairy products appears to cut the risk of developing insulin resistance--the metabolic syndrome that usually leads to development of type 2 or non-insulin dependent diabetes, which is a known risk factor for developing heart disease.
Dr. Ronald M. Krause, chair of the American Heart Association's council on nutrition, physical activity and metabolism, cautioned that "Pereira's findings come from an observational study, so we cannot conclude that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between dairy consumption and reduced risk for heart disease."
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