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Dairy Fat Gets a Reprieve

Concern over dietary fat has dairy consumption on the wane, but perhaps it's misguided. Some fats are good for certain nutritional needs. Eating dairy products increases levels of a beneficial fat called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). Animal studies find CLA inhibits several types of cancer, and in vitro studies indicate it kills human skin cancer, colorectal cancer and breast-cancer cells. There is some evidence CLA may even reduce cholesterol and atherosclerosis.

To determine if eating dairy fat affects CLA levels in the body, Jim Jiang of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala studied 123 men ranging in age from 46 to 72. The men weighed and recorded the foods they ate for one week. Then, once a month for the next seven months, they recalled the foods they had eaten during the previous 24 hours. This entire process was repeated once before fasting blood samples and adipose (fatty) tissue were analyzed for CLA.

The more CLA men ate, the more they had in their blood and adipose tissues. Average CLA intake was 160 mg/day from dairy fat. Adipose levels of CLA were twice as high as blood levels and ranged from 0.3 to 0.8 percent of the fatty acids in adipose tissue.

The amount of CLA in fat tissue also correlated with the amounts of two other fatty acids found in milk—C14:1 and C16:1. In the last 35 years, levels of both fatty acids in people's adipose tissues diminished by half. Thus, Jiang infers that adipose CLA levels may also be down and says it's time to reevaluate the health ban against milk-fat intake.

—American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1999, Jul;70:21-7.