As I have said and repeated often, it is a big mistake to limit dairy products in the diet.

This is because dairy products and cheeses are the food that provides the most bioavailable calcium and because there are numerous studies that have shown a link between their nutritional characteristics, loss of body fat and better metabolic values.

A few years ago, The Lancet magazine published a 9-year study on the correlation between dietary dairy or cheese consumption and heart risk and premature death.

It was noted that those who consumed dairy products, regardless of whether they were whole or skimmed, had lower risks of cardiovascular problems and premature mortality.

There is a phenomenon known as the ” paradox of dairy products and whole cheeses “, for which it has been highlighted that, despite the fats contained in dairy products, those who consume them do not have problems with cholesterol, diabetes or metabolic syndrome.

DAIRY PRODUCTS IN THE DIET: THEIR NUTRITIONAL ROLE

Among the properties of dairy products and whole cheeses we have in fact their butyric acid content .

It is a short-chain fatty acid, found in ruminant milk, and in varying quantities, in butter and full-fat or whole cheeses.

Butyric acid is an essential acid for metabolism. It promotes thermogenesis, the health of good bacteria in the intestine, the health of the cells of the gastric mucosa, has anticancer effects.

It is true that a large part of this acid is produced by us through the fermentation processes of fibers and carbohydrates in general. But this production is subjective and in some people these fermentation phenomena produce other substances which, when accumulated, cause a series of SIBO disorders.

In this case an integration could be useful. But butyric acid supplements, unlike foods that contain it, often don’t reach the intestinal tract effectively.

DAIRY PRODUCTS IN THE DIET: OTHER HEALTHY FATS

Dairy products and cheeses also contain a good dose of other fatty acids useful against cholesterol, for example stearic acid, caprylic and capric acid. The latter is studied for its role against intestinal inflammation. We are talking about three saturated fats, but as you can understand, not all saturated fatty acids are bad for your health.

Proof of this is that the famous MCT oil that is heavily sponsored today contains caprylic and capric acids. It is at the heart of diets such as Bulletproof, Paleo and Ketogenic. But as we have seen, we find the same fatty acids plus butyric and stearic in butter and cheeses.

Some of these fats, due to their reduced chain chemical structure, do not form cholesterol and play a key role in intestinal and metabolic health.

In light of this data, it is therefore not surprising what a new study has discovered.

DAIRY PRODUCTS IN THE DIET REDUCE DIABETES AND BLOOD PRESSURE

A study published in the BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care journal that was conducted by analyzing patient data from 21 countries around the world through their morphological characteristics and medical records, in addition to food consumption. There were 190,000 participants, also followed here for nine years.

The data showed that those who consumed more than two servings of whole dairy products per day had a 12 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. There was neither positive nor negative correlation with skimmed dairy products, butter and cream.

Obviously, both this study and the one published in The Lancet are epidemiological studies, which do not report a cause-and-effect relationship. While the studies on the components of dairy products we have seen before do. They are studies conducted in vivo, in vitro or double-blind.

MEDITERRANEAN DIET MENU WITH DAIRY PRODUCTS

Lastly, I would like to point out the modified Mediterranean diet , an initiative of a group of Canadian scientists who revised the classic Mediterranean diet in the light of studies on the importance of calcium and other substances in dairy products and cheeses. This diet was found to be most useful in metabolic syndrome and in weight and blood glucose reduction on samples from single-blind participants.