Undoubtedly, one of the cruelest tricks that life has in store for us is that the tastiest food is usually the most fattening and the one that can make us sick. But a recent survey revealed some shocking statistics about one of man's favorite vices – cheese.
New research, which was made at University College Dublin, showed that people who consume a lot of cheese, generally slimmer than those who don't. The study involved 1,500 people between the ages of 18 and 90 and measured the effects of dairy products on them, such as milk, cheese and yogurt. The results are surprising: those who consumed the most dairy products had lower body mass index, narrower waist, lower blood pressure and less body fat.
"We noticed that the most diligent cheese eaters had a significantly higher intake of saturated fat than those who did not eat it, or those who ate very little of it. But there was no difference in LDL cholesterol levels.”
LDL cholesterol is bad cholesterol. If there is too much of this in the blood, it can start to deposit on the vessel walls. The long-term consequence of such loading is atherosclerosis - the narrowing and hardening of arterial vessels, which is one of the most common causes of cardiovascular disease and death in the developed world.
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And because that wasn't weird enough, they also found that those using it had low-fat dairy products, actually mostly higher cholesterol levels.
The results of the study are completely contrary to what we have believed until now. Among other things, these support research that was conducted in other countries and found that the saturated fat in cheese does not raise cholesterol in the blood, as it contains unique nutrients.
"Of course, it is not enough to consider only nutrients, but also how we eat, what is our general dietary pattern. So it's not just food itself, but also other foods that we consume in combination with these nutrients," wrote Dr. Feeney.
