How butter and cheese can keep you slim - and even ward off diabetes

Many of us still automatically pick up the skimmed milk rather than the full-fat in the supermarket, or choose low-fat spreads instead of butter. Such shopping habits are the result of decades of official advice to cut back on foods containing saturated fats because they clog our arteries and raise the risk of heart attack. But recently there have been the rumblings of a dietary revolution, with claims that saturated fat has been unfairly demonised.

Not only has swapping to skimmed milk and similar products done little to halt the rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes, but major scientific trials have acquitted saturated fat of responsibility for heart disease. In the past week, Swedish researchers found that eating full-fat dairy products slashed the risk of type 2 diabetes.

In the study of more than 2,500 people, those who ate eight or more portions of high-fat dairy products a day had a 23 per cent lower risk of developing the condition than those who ate one portion or less. Previous research has suggested that fat affects how the body breaks down sugar.

And a Canadian study, published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, found that eating dairy products such as cheese and cream may be associated with lower blood pressure and blood sugar - both factors linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity. Researchers found that people with healthier blood test results had a type of fatty acid in their blood that is associated with eating dairy food.

More on this story here.

Eddie