STOP THE PRESS. There’s fresh new research assessing the relationship between full fat dairy and disease, and the results will shock you. Full fat dairy isn’t the bad guy, it provides many more health benefits thank it’s skimmed counterparts.

Dairy often catches a negative wrap online, and since the mid 60’s when fat was labelled as ‘bad’ for you, the pendulum has begun to swing back and it’s skim milk or low fat counterparts are now proving to be not the best options available. All dairy (milk, yogurt, yogurt drinks, cheese and dishes prepared with dairy products) are produced in either full or low-fat products. 
Now if the thought of low-fat dairy products doesn’t take you back to the vision of those mid-90’s TV commercials from Olivia Newton John in her lycra gear singing “let’s get physical”, then you are clearly much younger than myself 😉 For those that remember those ads, sorry for getting that song (and lycra-clad vision of her rad dance moves) stuck in your head!

The research focuses on the relation of dairy products to cardiovascular disease, the researchers saw that those who consumed dairy, and in particular full fat dairy, twice a day were less likely to experience the symptoms of metabolic syndrome, which include high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess stomach fat, high blood fats, and abnormal cholesterol levels and is a risk factor for heart disease. They found that that two daily servings of any dairy product were linked to 24% lower risk of metabolic syndrome, while two daily servings of full fat dairy in particular showed a 28% lower risk—both compared to no dairy at all.

Higher intake of whole fat (but not low fat) dairy was associated with a much lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome and most of its component factors, and with a lower incidence of hypertension and diabetes. Our findings should be evaluated in large randomized trials of the effects of whole fat dairy on the risks of metabolic syndrome, hypertension, and diabetes.
Now, I’m not saying that everyone should run out and gorge themselves on as much full fat dairy products as they can, but if you tolerate dairy well, and already include it in your daily diet and drink skim milk, maybe now is the time to make the switch. To dive in and read the research for yourself, you can find it here.