Saturated fat from dairy linked to lower body fat in women

Higher mean intake of saturated fat from dairy sources was associated with a lower level of body fat among women, according to researchers.

In men, they found that higher saturated fat intake from dairy sources was associated with a lower atherogenic risk profile.

“Current dietary guidance recommends limiting intakes of saturated fats, but most fail to consider that saturated fats from different food sources may have different health effects,” Mengjie Yuan, PhD, of the Boston University School of Medicine’s section of preventive medicine and epidemiology, and colleagues wrote.

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, included 2,391 participants of the Framingham Offspring Study who were aged 30 years and older and had information on dietary records and health outcomes.

For the study, Yuan and colleagues used data from a contemporaneous Microsoft disk operating system version of Nutrition Data System for Research to examine how saturated fat from both dairy and nondairy sources impacts body fat, lipids and inflammation.

When they compared women in the highest quintile of dairy-derived saturated fat intake with those in the lowest quintile, Yuan and colleagues found that those in the highest quintile had significantly lower BMIs (26.2 kg/m² vs. 27.8 kg/m²). They also had a lower percentage of fat mass (36.7% vs. 38%, P = 0.09) and larger LDL particle sizes.

Additionally, the researchers noted that “nondairy saturated fat in females was inversely associated with the triglyceride:HDL ratio.”

For men, the results were different. Compared with men in the lowest quintile of saturated fat intake from dairy sources, those in the highest quintile had an HDL cholesterol that was 2.8 mg/dL higher. The researchers additionally found that men in the highest quintile had larger LDL and HDL particle sizes (P < .01 for both), a higher HDL particle concentration (P < 0.01) and a lower VLDL particle concentration (P < 0.01). Also, dairy-derived saturated fat intake was inversely linked to C-reactive protein (P < 0.01), fibrinogen (P < 0.01), triglycerides (P < 0.01) and the triglyceride:HDL ratio (P < 0.01).

“In this study, we found that higher mean intakes of saturated fat from dairy sources over 8 years were associated with lower levels of body fat in females,” the researchers wrote. “After accounting for differences in body fat and other risk factors among males, higher mean intakes of saturated fat from dairy sources were associated with a less atherogenic risk profile, including less inflammation, higher concentrations of HDL cholesterol, lower TG concentrations, and a lower TG:HDL ratio.”

The researchers said they found “no statistically significant adverse effects of saturated fats from nondairy sources on any of these outcomes” in either men or women.

“In conclusion, this longitudinal study provides important new evidence that saturated fat from dairy sources was beneficially associated with markers of CVD risk, including anthropometric measures of body fat in females; biomarkers of inflammation, HDL cholesterol, TG, and the HDL:TG ratio in males; and lipid particles in both males and females in the Framingham Offspring cohort,” they wrote.