Dear Reader,
For decades, mainstream experts have been wagging their fingers at those of us who enjoy eating rich, delicious, nutritious, and wholesome dairy foods—such as butter, cheese, milk, and yogurt.
They’ve tried to claim that the saturated fat in these foods will clog your arteries, cause cardiovascular diseases, and eventually kill you.
But that argument has been all wrong, all along.
For one, dairy is an integral part of the Mediterranean diet—which experts far and wide consider to be the best diet on the planet for your heart…and your overall health! In fact, in the Mediterranean, they eat rich, full-fat dairy with just about every meal.
And now, a major, new study shows that people who eat MORE dairy have a much LOWER risk of suffering a deadly heart attack or stroke compared to their peers.
Let’s jump right in…
Go ahead and enjoy your buttered bread
An international team of scientists looked at the connections among dairy consumption, cardiovascular diseases, and death in more than 4,000 Swedish men and women, with an average age of 60 years.
First, the researchers measured blood levels of a particular fatty acid found primarily in dairy foods. (This approach is far more accurate and reliable than using food surveys or questionnaires, as people tend to forget how often they do or don’t eat certain foods.)
Next, the researchers followed the men and women for an average of 16 years to see who suffered a heart attack, stroke, or other serious circulatory event. They also noted how many of the participants died.
It turns out, those with the highest levels of dairy fatty acids had the lowest risks of suffering one of these serious cardiovascular events. In addition, they had NO increase in all-cause mortality risk (death from ANY cause) compared to their peers.
This finding is important in three ways…
First, it means that men and women who ate more full-fat dairy did NOT suffer from more heart disease events. And, on the contrary, eating more of it clearly PROTECTED them from these harmful events.
Second, men and women who ate more dairy clearly did not die more often—or sooner—than their peers who avoided it.
Third, we should note that the blood testing measured natural dairy fats. Meaning if you consume the highly processed, low-fat or fat-free dairy products, you will NOT gain the same protection as the people in this study.
Add dairy to your daily diet
The researchers decided to confirm their initial findings in Sweden by combining them with 17 other previous studies, which included 43,000 people from Denmark, the U.K., and the U.S.
Using this much larger pool of people, the researchers, here again, found that men and women with the highest levels of natural dairy fat had the lowest risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Kathy Trieu, said, “Our study suggests that cutting down on dairy fat or avoiding dairy altogether might not be the best choice for health.”
Indeed!
Plus, in an interview with CNN, an Irish lecturer not involved in the study commented that scientists need to “rethink what we think we know about food and disease.” He also added that “dairy products do not need to be avoided. This is largely lost in its translation when communicating what we know about healthy eating.”
Well, at least somebody in Ireland gets it. And that reminds me…
If you ever visit the Emerald Isle, make sure to try their local dairy foods. They have the best butter, cream, milk, and ice cream that I’ve ever tasted. And many of the cheeses rank right up there with the best. (You can now find the Irish butter and cheese in the U.S., too.)
And, as I always suggest, make sure to add at least THREE servings of full-fat, organic dairy foods to your daily diet. You’ll get some heart-healthy fats into your diet, and you’ll also get calcium—which should only ever come from your diet (not from supplements). To learn more about the health benefits of dairy, refer to the current issue of my monthly Insiders’ Cures newsletter (“Is this amazing health food on your grocery list?”).
Finally, there are many other safe, effective, natural approaches to protecting your heart, in addition to eating more full-fat dairy, as I outline in my Heart Attack Prevention and Repair Protocol. To learn more about this comprehensive online learning tool, or to enroll today, click here now!