We’ve long believed that drinking skimmed or semi-skimmed milk is the healthier option, but new research has shown that we might be better off pouring the full-fat variety into our morning coffee.
According to the results of a new study, published last month in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, whole milk may much better for your heart health.
The team from the University of Copenhagen found that full-fat milk may boost levels of ‘good’ cholesterol in the blood, helping to reduce your risk of heart disease by helping to eliminate ‘bad’ cholesterol.
In the small study of 18 people, participants were given 500ml of skimmed or whole milk to drink per day for three weeks, before switching over to the other variety for the same amount of time. Their cholesterol levels were also tested to measure their levels of good and bad cholesterol during the experiment.
And, while the different varieties of milk seemed to have no effect on the volunteers’ levels of bad cholesterol, good cholesterol was significantly increased with whole milk consumption.
Given that previous research has shown that full-fat milk may also help lower your risk of developing diabetes, the team say the new findings add to the growing belief that it may be healthier than low-fat dairy.
They wrote: ‘Dietary guidelines have for decades recommended choosing low-fat dairy products due to the high content of saturated fat in dairy known to increase blood concentration of LDL cholesterol .
‘But studies show no association between overall dairy intake and risk of cardiovascular disease and even point to an inverse association with type 2 diabetes.
‘Our findings suggest whole milk might be considered a part of a healthy diet among the healthy population.’
In case you were wondering, here are the differences in fat content for the three varieties of milk, according to the Dairy Council: semi-skimmed milk contains no more than 0.3g of fat per 100g , skimmed milk contains between 1.5 and 1.8g of fat per 100g, and whole milk has a minimum fat content of 3.5g per 100g.
