Dairy not so bad - new findings

Tuesday July 28th, 2009

For decades diets high in milk and cheese have been castigated as 'unhealthy' - but new findings today cast doubt on this.

A study conducted over 65 years in Britain and Australia suggests that a high calcium diet in childhood may be just what is needed.

Free milk used to be a staple in British schools but was controversially ended more than 30 years ago. And diet has tended to switch to dairy substitutes to avoid butter and cream.

Researchers obtained food diaries collected by scientists in the 1930s from some 1,300 British families.

They then tracked down the fate of some 4,374 children from these families - of which about one third had died.

They could find no direct link between eating dairy products and deaths from heart disease or stroke.

But children that ate the most dairy products and the most calcium had the lowest death rates. And high levels of calcium were linked to low death rates from stroke.

The research was conducted by the department of social medicine at Bristol University and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia.

However the researchers, led by Dr Jolieke van der Pols, admit that part of the explanation may be that the children who consumed the most calcium came from the wealthiest families.

And further research would also need to compare the 1930s diet with more modern diets.

They conclude: "Children whose family diet in the 1930s was high in calcium were at reduced risk of death from stroke."

Heart 2009; doi 10.1136/hrt.2009.168716

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Tags: Australia | Child Health | Heart Health | Nutrition & Healthy Eating | UK News

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