🍦The new thinking about dairy and health

Also: How a Mass. law to protect children could punish women in recovery [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  June 6, 2023 Hi CommonHealth reader, Milk. Cheese. Yogurt. Butter. Ice Cream. Dairy makes up about 10% of calories in the typical[American adult's diet](. For the last 40 years, one approach to dairy has reigned supreme: Get calcium, avoid fat. But Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor of nutrition at Tufts University, thinks that wisdom is “really terribly oversimplified.” Mozaffarian argues dairy products are so varied — and their health implications so distinct — that classifying them together is a “mistake.” Mozaffarian — who has been named one of the["World's Most Influential Scientific Minds"]( Thomson Reuters and was nominated to serve on President Biden's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition — walked me through the latest (and perhaps counterintuitive) research on the main types of diary. To my surprise and delight, the conversation made me want to get a scoop of ice cream and toss out my milk. Here’s what he had to say: Yay for yogurt: Among dairy foods, yogurt has the strongest evidence for health benefits. “Yogurt is consistently linked to lower risk of diabetes and lower risk of obesity and weight gain,” Mozaffarian said. He explained that part of the reason is thought to be because yogurt is full of probiotics, bacteria which may help build a healthy gut. Cheese, please: Cheese often gets a bad rap and is blamed for making people fat, but Mozaffarian isn't so sure. It's the top fermented food consumed in the U.S., and it is not associated with higher risk of heart attacks or weight gain. Instead, it seems to be associated with a lower risk of diabetes and maybe even stroke. “People talk about pizza as a negative because of the cheese, when in fact, the cheese is probably much healthier for us than the crust," Mozaffarian said. “I can't say conclusively that cheese is good for you, but I can say pretty conclusively that it's not bad for us." Mixed results for milk: Milk is vigorously promoted, especially for kids, but Mozaffarian said the evidence does not support its popularity. “On average, milk is pretty neutral. There’s a slightly higher risk of this cancer, a slightly lower risk of that cancer. No real association with heart disease. Milk consumption does seem to lower blood pressure,” he said. The one thing milk does for kids, is make them slightly taller. But, Mozaffarian said, "that's probably less because of the calcium, but more because of some of the growth hormones that are in milk.” His suggestion: If you like milk, drink it. If not, don’t worry. Don't bash butter: There’s lots of debate about butter, but Mozaffarian said Americans, on average, don’t actually eat that much butter. “We do know that butter raises LDL cholesterol, the bad cholesterol, but butter also raises HDL cholesterol, the good cholesterol,” he said. “On average, those effects would seem to cancel each other out.” And, Mozaffarian said, studies bear that out. He puts butter in the “neutral category,” meaning there are healthier foods (vegetables, nuts, extra virgin olive oil), and there are less healthy foods (refined white bread, for example). When asked whether folks should butter their bread, he said eat the butter and skip the bread. We all scream for...: “What’s really interesting about ice cream is that in long-term observational studies," Mozaffarian said, "people who consume more ice cream have lower risk of diabetes." Now, it’s hard to know if that is because ice cream somehow makes people healthier or if healthier people tend to eat ice cream. But when picking a dessert, his top choice is dark chocolate, preferably with 70% or higher cocoa content (with nuts, ideally). After that, ice cream is a pretty healthy option, according to Mozaffarian. It's far better than candy, cookies, bakery treats — and white bread — which are full of refined grains and sugar. For more on the surprisingly weird and mysterious ice cream debate, here is a fun article from [The Atlantic](. And if you want to know more about what might be behind these health differences, check out my full conversation with Mozaffarian [here](. P.S.— Will you be one of the 700 WBUR fans who help us reach our [June fundraising goal]( week? If you enjoy the CommonHealth newsletter, please take a moment to support us. 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