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Dairy and Cardiometabolic Outcomes

About the systematic review

The study aimed to determine:

• If the consumption of dairy products is detrimental, neutral or beneficial to cardiometabolic health;
• If the recommendation to consume reduced-fat as opposed to regular-fat dairy is evidence-based.

The review included 21 meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies on the association between dairy consumption and cardiometabolic-related outcomes.

Results

Summary of the associations between dairy consumption and cardiometabolic-related outcomes:

CVD = cardiovascular disease; CHD = coronary heart disease; MetS = metabolic syndrome; T2D = type 2 diabetes; Uncertain = very low quality of evidence

There is high-quality evidence for the association between:

• All dairy and reduced hypertension risk;
• Low-fat dairy and reduced type 2 diabetes risk;
• Yogurt and reduced type 2 diabetes risk.      

There is moderate to high evidence that:

• Cheese has a neutral effect on cardiovascular disease risk;
• Cheese is associated with reduced stroke and type 2 diabetes risk;
• Regular/high-fat dairy is neutral in terms of coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension and type 2 diabetes.

The recommendation to focus on low-fat in place of regular/high-fat dairy is currently not evidence-based.

Conclusion

There is no evidence to suggest that any type of dairy product, as well as dairy fat, is unfavourably associated with cardiometabolic-related outcomes, including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

In addition, there is evidence that dairy products may be beneficial to cardiovascular health. In particular, the complex matrix of dairy foods may play a role. However, further research is needed to understand the potential underlying mechanisms. For more information, click here.

Keywords: type 2 diabetes , cardiovascular disease , coronary heart disease , stroke , hypertension , metabolic syndrome