Gaby
American researchers are calling for a reevaluation of recommendations about full-fat dairy. They say unprocessed red meat has a “minimal impact” on health, while cheese and fish are essential to a healthy diet.
Essential Foods for Your Diet
The researchers identified full-fat dairy products as one of six “key” foods that can help reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Fish, nuts, legumes, and vegetables were also included in this list following a comprehensive analysis of nearly 250,000 participants.
Although recent studies have linked red meat to cancer and heart disease, the new analysis suggests unprocessed red meat can be part of a healthy diet when eaten in moderation. That does not apply to processed meats like bacon and sausage.
The findings were validated through five large independent studies conducted across 70 countries. The researchers emphasize that an optimal healthy diet, which they call a “clean” diet, includes 3-4 servings of legumes, seven servings of nuts, 2-3 servings of fish, and 14 servings of low-fat dairy such as milk, yogurt, or cheese.
The analysis allows a “moderate amount”—one serving—of whole grains and unprocessed meat. A “clean” diet may also include one slice of bread, half a cup of cooked rice, barley, or quinoa, and approximately 85 grams of cooked red meat or poultry.
What Should a Healthy Diet Look Like?
Lead author Dr. Andrew Mente points out that low-fat foods have dominated public advice and the food industry. Food labels have focused on cutting fat and saturated fat.
Dr. Mente’s team says the priority should be boosting intake of protective foods: nuts, fish, and dairy, which people often avoid because they’re high in calories.
But cutting dairy—especially full-fat dairy—down to tiny amounts isn’t necessary. Dr. Mente told Daily Mail reporters the results show that up to two servings of dairy (mainly full-fat) can fit into a healthy diet. That matches current dietary guidelines showing these products can help protect against high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome.
The Connection Between Diet and Health Outcomes
Each participant received a healthy-diet score from zero to six; a score of five or higher was linked to lower mortality risk. The researchers adjusted for age, gender, waist-to-hip ratio, education, income, urban or rural residence, physical activity, smoking, diabetes, use of statins or blood pressure medications, and total energy intake.
The average diet score was 2.95. Over an average follow-up of 9.3 years, there were 15,707 deaths and 40,764 heart attacks and strokes recorded.
Participants who scored five or more on the healthy-diet scale had a 30% lower risk of death during the study period than participants who scored 1 or less. They also had 19%, 18%, and 14% lower risks of stroke, cardiovascular disease, and heart attack, respectively.
Dr. Mente adds that this was the most comprehensive study of nutrition and health outcomes worldwide, and the only one with adequate representation from high-, middle-, and low-income countries. The link between a “clean” diet and better health outcomes held for generally healthy people, patients with cardiovascular disease, patients with diabetes, and across different economic settings.
The strongest associations appeared in regions with the poorest diet quality—South Asia, China, and parts of Africa—where calorie intake was low and refined carbohydrates dominated. Cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and strokes, kills more people worldwide than any other illness: WHO estimates about 18 million deaths a year, more than 30% of the global total.
Dietitian Dariush Mozaffarian, who was not involved in the study, says the new findings on the “clean” diet—together with previous research—call for a reassessment of longstanding recommendations against full-fat dairy. He says it’s time to update national dietary guidelines, which could affect millions.
