A study<\/a>\u00a0published last fall by researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health found people in their 20s who consumed the most full-fat dairy products were the least likely to have early signs of heart disease two decades later.<\/p>\nEthan Cannon, a Ph.D. student in epidemiology who is the study\u2019s lead author, said dairy foods are good sources of nutrients, especially vitamin D, calcium and potassium. But he said equally as important is what people are eating instead if they aren\u2019t consuming dairy products.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you think about the overall food environment out there, and all the, frankly, junk food that people are consuming, dairy products \u2014 both whole fat and low fat \u2014 would be doing more benefit than harm compared to some of the other options,\u201d Cannon said.<\/p>\n
He said more research is needed to understand why consuming whole-fat dairy products has a different impact than other foods high in saturated fat.<\/p>\n
This uncertainty is why some nutrition experts feel the recommendation to consume full-fat dairy products in the new Dietary Guidelines goes too far.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is such a complex subject,\u201d said Sander Kersten, director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. \u201cYou can weigh the evidence very differently, and depending on how you do that, you end up with a different outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Trump administration has unveiled a new food pyramid, which stresses protein and whole foods and calls for an end to \u201cthe war on saturated fat.\u201d Image courtesy of USDA <\/p>\n
Without clear evidence around how the body processes full-fat dairy, Kersten said he still favors a recommendation for consuming low-fat and nonfat products.<\/p>\n
The new guidelines maintain the longstanding recommendation that saturated fat should not exceed 10 percent of a person\u2019s daily calories. But Kersten said achieving that level would be incredibly difficult if a person is also consuming more whole-fat dairy and beef like the guidelines recommend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey simply don\u2019t match. You\u2019re not going to be able to stay within that 10 percent if you follow those guidelines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That has led Kersten and others working in nutrition research to wonder whether some of the Dietary Guidelines changes were pushed by industry groups rather than scientific evidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been examples in the past where these interest groups have used their leverage to try to impact the general guidelines and people\u2019s perception on dairy foods,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Other experts, like Kratz, feel there is enough research to stop excluding full-fat dairy from nutrition guidance. He said if scientists can\u2019t decide what type of dairy is better, the choice should be left to the consumer.<\/p>\n
But Kratz said not all full-fat products should be treated equally.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people think, \u2018Oh, dairy fat now is fine,\u2019 that could easily lead to people also just being much more liberal with butter and cream and ice cream,\u201d Kratz said. \u201cI think we should be careful not to throw that into the same basket.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the new Dietary Guidelines highlight butter and beef tallow as healthy fats, Kratz said there is no science to support that suggestion.<\/p>\n
He said research has clearly shown that butter raises LDL cholesterol levels and is high in calories without providing any beneficial vitamins or minerals.<\/p>\n
This story was produced in partnership with\u00a0Harvest Public Media<\/a>, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, health experts have recommended Americans opt for non-fat and low-fat options in the dairy aisle. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[26520,97,3,269],"class_list":{"0":"post-461833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-dairy","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-nutrition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}