Cheese and Yogurt May Help to Prevent Heart Attacks and Diabetes
April 19, 2015
by Gabe Mirkin, MD

A new study shows that yogurt, cheese and other fermented dairy products may help to prevent heart attacks (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, April 2015;63 (10):2830-9). People who ate a lot of cheese had very high levels of butyrate in their stool and urine and much lower levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol. This means that the fermented dairy products are being converted by bacteria in the intestines to butyrate that prevents food from forming the bad LDL cholesterol that is associated with increased heart attack risk. The authors believe that they have shown that fermented dairy products encourage the growth of healthful intestinal bacteria that may help to prevent heart attacks. Another study of 27,000 people, ages 45 to 74, shows that eating cheese and yogurt lowers risk of type-2 diabetes by 25%, while meat increases risk (Am J Clin Nutr, April 2015).

Yogurt, cheese and other fermented milk products have not been associated with increased risk for diabetes, heart attacks or bone loss (Am J Clin Nutr, 2014;99:1235S-42S), probably because they have very low levels of lactose and galactose (J Hum Nutr Diet, 2009;22:400-8). Fermenting milk breaks down the galactose so that almost no galactose is left in cheese or yogurt.

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