Whenever I see a story like this it infuriates me.
People who ate the most full-fat dairy had a 69% lower risk of cardiovascular death than those who ate the least. Otherwise stated, people who mostly avoided dairy or consumed low-fat dairy had more than three times the risk of dying of coronary heart disease or stroke than people who ate the most full-fat diary.
I'm no expert, so I have no way of judging whether the study is valid, but it seems credible to a layman like me.
What infuriates me is that I religiously avoid full-fat milk. I do eat butter and cheese, but I decided long ago that I could at least cut my fat intake by switching from full-fat milk to what used to be called skim milk. It took a while to readjust my taste buds but now I can't stand the taste of full-fat milk.
So now along comes this study that lumps me into the category of people with a higher risk of having a heart attack because I switched to fat-free milk. That's just fucked up.
Results: During an average follow-up time of 14.4 years, 177 participants died, including 61 deaths due to CVD and 58 deaths due to cancer. There was no consistent and significant association between total dairy intake and total or cause-specific mortality. However, compared with those with the lowest intake of full-fat dairy, participants with the highest intake (median intake 339 g/day) had reduced death due to CVD (HR: 0.31; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.12–0.79; P for trend=0.04) after adjustment for calcium intake and other confounders. Intakes of low-fat dairy, specific dairy foods, calcium and vitamin D showed no consistent associations.
Conclusions: Overall intake of dairy products was not associated with mortality. A possible beneficial association between intake of full-fat dairy and cardiovascular mortality needs further assessment and confirmation.
Now, one reason for this might have to do with people switching from butter to margarine. I hate margarine, so I can at least hang on to a few shreds of a nutritional superiority complex.
What is especially aggravating is that you try to follow what experts in the field say is the right diet, the right exercise plan, and then along comes a new study that says it's all bullshit.
And what makes it really bad is that the Australian study actually makes some sense, even to this non-expert.
So what is it now -- Pass the buttermilk?