SNP16: A Dairy Fat Paradox? – Saturated Fat, Food Matrices & Heart Disease

Introduction
Co-Hosts for this Episode
Overview
Related Resources
Premium Content
- Detailed Study Notes
- Episode Transcript

Note: This is a Premium-exclusive episode, so in order to listen to the full episode you’ll need to subscribe to Sigma Nutrition Premium. However, you can listen to a preview here:

Introduction

Substantial evidence shows that a high intake of saturated fat in the diet has the potential to significantly raise LDL-C and ApoB-containing lipoproteins in many people, and in turn increase their risk of developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).

However, people may raise what seems to be some contradictory evidence, or what is sometimes thought of as a paradox: the impact of full-fat dairy on CVD risk.

This paradox arises because given the saturated fat content of full-fat milk, yogurt and cheese, we typically don’t see the same impact on blood lipid profiles. In addition, epidemiology can often show such foods in a favourable light. And the dairy fat story gets more interesting when we look at evidence showing there is a huge difference in the impact of consuming different dairy foods (e.g. butter vs cheese/yogurt).

So this leads to many questions that people rightly ask, which we aim to address in this episode. Questions such as:

Why doesn’t increased dairy consumption lead to same increases in CVD risk as other saturated fat sources?
Do results from full-fat dairy studies prove that saturated fat isn’t a problem?
What is it about cheese/yogurt that makes it different to butter?
How do low-fat and full-fat dairy compare?
Diets including/excluding dairy: how to compare?

Co-hosts for this Episode

Dr. Alan Flanagan has a PhD in nutrition from the University of Surrey, where his doctoral research focused on circadian rhythms, feeding, and chrononutrition.

This work was based on human intervention trials. He also has a Masters in Nutritional Medicine from the same institution.

Dr. Flanagan is a regular co-host of Sigma Nutrition Radio. He also produces written content for Sigma Nutrition, as part of his role as Research Communication Officer.

Danny Lennon has a master’s degree (MSc.) in Nutritional Sciences from University College Cork, and he is the founder of Sigma Nutrition.

Danny is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Sports Nutrition Association, the global regulatory body responsible for the standardisation of best practice in the sports nutrition profession.

Overview

Why doesn’t increased dairy consumption lead to same increases in CVD risk as other saturated fat sources?
Do results from full-fat dairy studies prove that saturated fat isn’t a problem?
What is it about cheese/yogurt that makes it different to butter?
How do low-fat and full-fat dairy compare?
Diets including/excluding dairy: how to compare?