Fermented Dairy Foods and Cardiovascular Risk

Abstract The association between dairy food consumption and cardiovascular risk is being reevaluated. Despite their high saturated fatty acid content, fermented dairy products appear to have a neutral effect, based on several large prospective cohort studies. Further, the consumption of yogurt, fermented milk, and cheese has been shown to associate inversely with cardiovascular events in a significant number of cohort studies. The carotid intima-media thickness appears less with yogurt consumption, and plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol is not elevated by cheese intake when compared with butter. More importantly recent observations have strongly favored an inverse association of dairy food consumption especially of the low-fat variety and of fermented products particularly of yogurt with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes has emerged as a major cause of cardiovascular disease thus further enhancing the benefits of fermented dairy intake as part of the dietary strategy to prevent cardiovascular disease. Caution is nevertheless indicated until robust mechanisms are demonstrated to underpin the epidemiological observations.