Are Dairy Products Fattening and Harmful? The Facts About Low-Fat vs. Full-Fat from a Nutritional Perspective
You've probably heard it before: dairy products make you gain weight. When starting a diet, one of the first things many people do is switch to skim milk or cut out cheese entirely. But what if everything we've been told about dairy and weight gain is wrong? The Real Relationship Between Dairy and Weight Here's something that might surprise you: the idea that dairy products automatically cause weight gain lacks strong scientific support. In fact, multiple studies suggest the opposite might be true. A meta-analysis of 27 randomized controlled trials, which included a total of 2,101 women and men, found that higher dairy consumption lowered body weight in the context of energy restriction in short-term (less than 1 year) trials. The key phrase here is "energy restriction" – when people controlled their overall calorie intake while including dairy, they actually lost weight. Even more compelling is what happens with women specifically. A study of 18,438 middle-ag...