Eating cheese everyday WON’T give you heart disease

March 14, 2017

Current guidelines advise people to steer away from foods high in saturated fats
It is believed it increases levels of bad cholesterol – raising risk of heart disease
But experts found consuming large amounts of the popular snack is actually safe
Those who regularly ate cheese had lower levels of LDL cholesterol, they found

Stephen Matthews For Mailonline

Published:
11:25 EDT, 14 March 2017

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Updated:
11:28 EDT, 14 March 2017

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Brie lovers rejoice – eating cheese everyday doesn’t raise your cholesterol levels, new research suggests.

Despite being high in saturated fats, scientists found consuming large amounts of the popular snack is safe and can even be beneficial.

In fact, those who avoid the fat are at risk of heart disease due to their higher levels of LDL cholesterol.

Despite being high in saturated fats, scientists found consuming large amounts of cheese is safe and can even be beneficial

Current health guidelines recommend people to try and steer clear from foods high in saturated fats.

The NHS says that the fat, found in butter, biscuits and bacon, increases levels of cholesterol in the blood, particularly LDL.

The substance is found in the blood and helps the body to function properly, experts say.

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However, when there is too much in the bloodstream, it can stick to the walls of arteries and restrict blood flow.

This can then lead to heart disease – the leading cause of death across the world, with leading scientists having warned about its potential effects for decades.

But to test the theory, researchers from University College Dublin examined the impact of dairy foods on 1,500 participants.

In fact, those on a ‘low fat’ diet are at higher risk of heart disease due to their higher levels of LDL cholesterol

ONLY A SMALL CHANGE IS NEEDED…

Replacing just one per cent of your saturated fat intake with healthy food can reduce the risk of heart disease by up to eight per cent, scientists claimed in November.

Foods such as steak, chocolate, hard cheese, whole milk and butter are high in saturated fats which is bad for the heart.

Harvard University scientists found around a five per cent higher intake of fats found in these foods was associated with a 25 per cent increased risk of coronary heart disease over the next 24 to 28 years.

But replacing just one per cent of these saturated fat from our diet with more healthy sources of energy drastically reduced the risk by between six and eight per cent.

Ranging from the ages of 18 and 90, they were then subjected to a range of tests to determine the effects.

Their analysis found that cheese consumption was not associated with increased body fat. Nor was it linked to high amounts of LDL cholesterol.

Study author Dr Emma Feeney said: ‘What we saw was that in the high consumers they had a significantly higher intake of saturated fat than the non-consumers and the low consumers and yet there was no difference in their LDL cholesterol levels.

‘We have to consider not just the nutrients themselves but also the matrix in which we are eating them in and what the overall dietary pattern is.

‘So not just about the food then, but the pattern of other foods we eat with them as well.’

The study, published in the journal Nutrition and Diabetes, also found higher dairy intake was associated with lower body mass index.

While it helped reduced waist size and lower blood pressure – two other known risk factors of heart disease.

The findings echo previous research that shows cheese does not adversely impact cholesterol levels due to its nutrients.