High-Fat Cheese May Have Cognitive Benefit, Study Suggests

 

Your doctor has informed you of the benefits of dairy fat, right?

 Maybe ask about Grana Padano cheese and see how long your doctor has been incompetent!

Study: Aged Cheese Lowers Blood Pressure September 2019

Eating cheese may offset blood vessel damage from salt Article no longer available so have your doctor find it.

Dairy fat from milk, butter, and cheese could actually PREVENT a heart attack September 2021 

Oh no, your doctor is totally fucking incompetent? And you're paying them?

But a more nuanced analysis here:

A Study Linked Cheese to Lower Dementia Risk. Is That Too Good to Be True?

The latest here:

High-Fat Cheese May Have Cognitive Benefit, Study Suggests

Key Takeaways

• A higher intake of high-fat cheese and cream was linked to lower dementia risk in a large Swedish study.
• Low-fat cheese, milk, and butter had no association with dementia risk over 25 years.
• The findings align with data from other studies, challenging long-held assumptions about fat and brain health.

Higher intake of high-fat cheese and cream in midlife was tied to a lower risk of subsequent dementia, a 25-year study in Sweden showed.

Adults who ate 50 g or more of high-fat cheese daily had a 13% lower risk of all-cause dementia (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.78-0.97) and a 29% lower risk of vascular dementia (HR 0.71, 95% CI 0.52-0.96) compared with those who ate less than 15 g a day, said Yufeng Du, PhD, of Lanzhou University in China, and co-authors.

Those who consumed 20 g or more of high-fat cream daily had a 16% lower dementia risk compared with those who consumed no high-fat cream (HR 0.84, 95% CI 0.72-0.98), the researchers reported in Neurology.

Low-fat cheese, low-fat cream, and other dairy products, including milk (regardless of fat content), fermented milk, and butter, had no significant association with dementia risk.

High-fat cheeses have more than 20% fat and include cheddar, Brie, and Gouda; two slices of cheddar were roughly equal to 50 g. High-fat creams typically contain 30-40% fat and include whipping cream, double cream, and clotted cream.

This study was observational and cannot prove causality, noted co-author Emily Sonestedt, PhD, of Lund University in Sweden. "The most likely interpretation is that high-fat cheese was part of a broader dietary pattern that supported vascular health in this population," she told MedPage Today.

The study results "align with previous research showing that certain fermented dairy products are not harmful -- and may even be beneficial -- for cardiovascular health, which is closely linked to brain health," Sonestedt said.

Nonetheless, the outcomes challenge "some long-held assumptions about fat and brain health," she noted.

The data come on the heels of other research that suggested that the risks associated with high-fat foods may be overstated.

"For decades, public health advice has championed low-fat dairy, a recommendation born from concerns that the saturated fat in whole-fat products would elevate the risk of cardiovascular disease," wrote Tian-Shin Yeh, MD, MMSc, PhD, of Taipei Medical University in Taiwan, in an accompanying editorial.

"More recently, this view has been challenged by publications suggesting that dairy fat may have a neutral association with cardiovascular outcomes, reigniting the controversy," Yeh added. "When the focus shifts from the heart to the brain, the picture becomes even murkier."

The Swedish findings need to be replicated in other populations with varying dietary patterns, she noted.

"To move beyond association and toward causation, randomized trials should test the effects of specific dairy products, such as high-fat versus low-fat and fermented versus non-fermented options, as well as the impact of replacing dairy with high-quality plant-based alternatives on cognitive outcomes," Yeh wrote.

"While the development of dementia requires extended follow-up to capture, trials using cognitive decline or other intermediate outcomes may offer more feasible paths forward," she suggested.

Du and colleagues studied 27,670 participants in the prospective Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort who had baseline dietary assessments that involved a 7-day food diary, a food frequency questionnaire, and a dietary interview.

Participants had a mean baseline age of 58 years, and 61% were female. The researchers identified dementia diagnoses using Swedish National Patient Register data through 2020, validating cases before 2014.

The median follow-up was 24.9 years. During that period, 3,208 incident dementia cases were recorded, including diagnoses of vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease. High-fat cheese intake was associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's among APOE4 noncarriers, but not among carriers.

The study had several limitations, the researchers acknowledged. Unmeasured confounding may have influenced outcomes. Diet was assessed only at baseline and changes may have occurred over the follow-up period. The findings are based on Swedish people and may not apply to other populations.

"A major strength of our study is the detailed dietary assessment and validated dementia diagnoses, but we need similar studies in other populations with different eating habits," Sonestedt said.

"For clinicians, the key message is that moderate amounts of high-fat cheese do not appear detrimental to brain health and may fit within an overall healthy diet," she noted.