Nutrients
The Secret of Dairy Fat
Butter and dairy fat have been unfairly demonized. New research shows that milk fats like conjugated linoleic acid and vitamin K2 have remarkable protective effects on our cardiovascular health.
Nutrients
Butter and dairy fat have been unfairly demonized. New research shows that milk fats like conjugated linoleic acid and vitamin K2 have remarkable protective effects on our cardiovascular health.
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One might recall times when we were told to replace "bad" butter with "good" margarine. Not so long ago, really. In some expert circles, this view is still held today.
The logic seemed sound: animal fat contains a lot of saturated fat that raises cholesterol levels and thus causes cardiovascular disease. Margarine, or plant fat, contains little saturated fat and many polyunsaturated fatty acids instead – a combination that supposedly lowers cholesterol. And indeed: studies show exactly that. When you replace butter or saturated fats with margarine or plant oils, cholesterol levels drop. The problem, however, is that this has never led to better health outcomes – that is, to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. (See reference)
Here's what was forgotten. It's like brushing your teeth. It's nice to get regular professional cleanings and brush diligently. But if your oral microbiome is out of balance and you – note the pun – cultivate the wrong bacteria through refined eating and too much sugar, your teeth will still fall out. We need to understand this connection. At this point, everyone should read Weston Price.
Let me put it differently: atherosclerosis – the disease that damages our blood vessels – is a systemic disease. It takes more than just lowering cholesterol to prevent it. And that's exactly why butter is not just "bad saturated fat" as is still preached in many quarters today. And this can be proven.
Milk fat ranks among fat sources with the highest proportion of saturated fatty acids. Unfortunate. But researchers made an incredible discovery decades ago. Milk fat is the best source of a specific trans fat that forms during ruminant digestion (e.g., in cows) and ends up in milk – conjugated linoleic acid. In experiments, this fatty acid can not only slow the development of atherosclerosis but even reverse it (reference). Perhaps that's why the French, with their excessive cheese consumption, have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than we do – who knows.
But this trans fat can do much more. We've explored this here. Additionally, milk fats are among the best sources of vitamin K2. Cheese contains remarkably high amounts of vitamin K2 – this vitamin also protects our blood vessels and has a whole range of positive effects on the body. Moreover, milk fat, particularly butter, contains around 15% short- and medium-chain fatty acids – saturated fats that are metabolized quite differently from conventional long-chain saturated fats. They don't make us sick; quite the opposite.
Researchers were baffled when they could unveil a true secret about milk fats. Because paradoxically, high-fat dairy products were always associated with lower diabetes risk. Didn't fit the scientists' worldview. The solution to the puzzle, according to researchers, might be another trans fat – trans-palmitoleic acid. Researchers found in a large US study that trans-palmitoleic acid – note: from milk fat! – was associated with a 60% reduced risk for diabetes.
"This is an extremely strong protective effect – stronger than all other known measures to prevent diabetes," says Gökhan Hotamisligil of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston (reference). And trans-palmitoleic acid also seems to significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, as optimizing energy metabolism also improves blood fat levels and inflammation markers.
And that's exactly the world many people – including researchers – are trapped in. They want to deconstruct nutrition and pick it apart to make connections that don't actually exist in the end. To tie this back to the current blog article, let me say this: it's not always like that. Sometimes saturated fat – for example, palmitic acid – is not beneficial for us, and sometimes the particular fat source also can't compensate or offset that.
That's what the current blog article is about. Worth reading.
