The more you consume low-fat yogurt, low-fat Cottage cheese and buttermilk (low — fat cream, a by-product derived from making butter from cow’s milk), the less likely you are to get cardiovascular disease-and the less likely you are to die from a heart attack. This follows from an epidemiological study published by Finnish nutritionists in the British journal of Nutrition. However, abundant absorption of unfermented milk products increases the risk of heart attack.
Study on the health of men consuming dairy products
At the University of Eastern Finland, scientists used data from 1981 men participating in the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study. At the start of the study, men were between 42 and 60 years of age and had no heart or vascular disease. The researchers followed them for more than 20 years and knew how many dairy products, such as milk, yogurt, Cottage cheese, buttermilk and butter, were consumed by men. Based on this consumption, they divided men into 4 equally large groups [quartiles; Q]. Consumption of dairy products in general had no effect on heart health, but when the researchers distinguished between non-fermented and fermented dairy products, they managed to identify certain effects. In particular, it was found that milk products prepared by fermentation methods reduce the likelihood of developing cardiovascular pathologies, while abundant absorption of non-fermented milk products increases this risk.
Effects of fermented milk products on heart health
The probability of death from a heart attack was lower, as observed men consumed more fermented foods than non-fermented dairy products, as shown in the figure. If the proportion of unfermented products consumed by men was greater, this chance was actually greater. After the researchers distinguished between high-fat fermented milk products, such as cheese, and low-fat fermented milk products, in particular buttermilk, low-fat yogurt and low-fat Cottage cheese, they found only the protective effect of the latter category.
Conclusion: low-fat dairy products reduce the risk of heart attack
«In conclusion, we found that high doses of fermented and especially низкожирных dairy products had feedback with a probability of occurrence and development of coronary heart disease, while very large doses of dairy products not exposed to fermentation (as well as milk) were associated with an increased risk of pathologies of the cardiovascular system (coronary heart disease)»,-summarizes the researchers. These results suggest that fermentation may be one of the key factors influencing the associations between different dairy products and the development of diseases such as ischemic heart disease.»
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