Dairy foods, milk, cheese, butter and the like, often get a bad rap and are shunned by the health conscious as a source of artery clogging cholesterol and bad-for-you saturated fats.
Some experts have argued that high fat dairy products contribute to heart problems later in life, though new research out of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research might just start to improve dairy’s troubled image, especially for the young.
Appearing in the July 28,2009 online issue of the journal Heart, this 65-year observational study brings us the finding that those who consumed lots of calcium and dairy products as children were more likely to avoid stroke and live longer than those with lower intakes.
The team of Australian researchers collected data on children (4,999 in all) from 1,343 families in England and Scotland, all participants in a survey of diet and health that was conducted in pre WWII Britain from 1937 to 1939.
The team was able to track the health status of 4,374 of the original children through the years 1948 and 2005, looking at two main outcomes, death from stroke or heart disease.
By 2005, 1,468 (34%) of the children had died. Of this number, 378 had succumbed to heart disease and 121 to stroke. The researchers also looked at dairy intake and mortality, as well as associations between specific dairy foods and mortality.
There was no clear evidence that the dairy foods were linked to either heart disease or stroke deaths. What was surprising was the children in the group with the highest intake of calcium (from milk and milk products) had lower overall death rates from stroke than those kids who took in less calcium as youngsters.
“Children whose family diet in the 1930s was high in calcium were at reduced risk of death from stroke. Furthermore, childhood diets rich in dairy or calcium were associated with lower all-cause mortality in adulthood,” the researchers conclude.
Other experts who didn’t participate in the study point out that those children who ate the most dairy probably also had better diets overall, eating more fruits and veggies as well.
Also, income and education levels of the original families may well have played a part in the results.
While we know that a good diet in childhood is important for longevity, no one can say for sure, even after this study, that calcium is solely responsible for this effect. What’s more, increased risks of prostate cancer have been linked to high dairy intake.
Low or non-fat products are a great option for young and old alike, and these were not available to the original pre-WWII populations.
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Calcium Linked To Protection From Stroke Death Continued…
If you want your kids to get more calcium, look for nutritious, low-fat or non-fat options.
“This study shows a modest protective effect of dietary calcium intake in childhood against stroke risk later in life, and a modest protective effect against mortality from any cause from higher intake of milk in childhood,” explains Dr. David L. Katz, who was not part of the work, but does serve as director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine.
Yet another reason to keep an eye on just what your children are eating, not only to ensure a healthy now, but perhaps a healthier later life as well.
