Is full-fat dairy healthier than low-fat dairy?

Is it healthier to eat full-fat dairy, or opt for lower-fat dairy options? Preventive medicine expert David Katz, MD, discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of eating full-fat dairy products vs. low-fat dairy products.

Transcript

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If there is an advantage to full-fat dairy, it's the fact that fat helps to fill us up.

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There are a couple of studies that suggest advantages of full-fat dairy, but I don't think we know the answer yet. I remain concerned that saturated fat in dairy

00:21

is less good for us than some other fats we could add to our diets. And that would be the unsaturated fats

00:27

from nuts, seeds, olive, avocado, fish, seafood. If there is an advantage to full-fat dairy,

00:35

it's the fact that fat helps to fill us up. And if we achieve satiety, a lasting feeling of fullness,

00:42

it helps prevent weight gain, potentially. And by preventing weight gain, especially around the middle, it can help defend, to some extent, against diabetes.

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So the advantage of dairy fat would be bumping other things out of our diet

00:57

that are even less good for us. So for example, more dairy fat might mean less sugar, less refined starch. And there might be some advantages in that.

01:05

But I think you can achieve satiety by eating lots of vegetables and fruits which fill us up-- whole grains, beans, and lentils.

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And you can get plenty of healthy fat from nuts, seeds, olive, avocado, fish. And then I think the context would

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argue there's probably no additional advantage to adding dairy fat. So dairy fat benefit, in the typical American diet,

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may be displacing other calories that are less good. [AUDIO LOGO]