Fermented dairy products can protect you from heart attack

Fermented dairy products, be it cheese, yoghurt or sour milk, could protect you from heart attacks, shows a new study.

Eating plenty of fermented dairy products — including cheese, yoghurt, sour milk — could protect you against heart attacks, finds a new study. The University of Eastern Finland research has been published in the British Journal of Nutrition.

The researchers found that men who eat plenty of fermented dairy products have a smaller risk of incident coronary heart disease than men who eat less of these products. (Unsplash)

The researchers found that men who eat plenty of fermented dairy products have a smaller risk of incident coronary heart disease than men who eat less of these products. A very high consumption of non-fermented dairy products, on the other hand, was associated with an increased risk of incident coronary heart disease.

Earlier studies have shown that fermented dairy products have more positive effects on blood lipid profiles and on the risk of heart disease than other dairy products. However, research on the topic remains scarce. The study participants were divided into groups on the basis of how much they ate different dairy products, and the researchers compared the groups with the highest and lowest consumption, while also taking various lifestyle and nutrition factors into consideration.

However, the researchers found that a very high consumption on non-fermented dairy products was associated with an increased risk of incident coronary heart disease. Milk was the most commonly used product in this category, and a very high consumption was defined as an average daily milk intake of 0.9 litres. Lower consumption levels were not associated with the risk.

The new study provides further evidence on the health benefits that fermented dairy products may have over non-fermented ones. All the mechanisms are not understood yet, but they may be linked to compounds forming during the fermentation process.

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