People who eat generous amounts of full-fat cheese tend to have better brain health, a study has suggested — although experts cautioned against overindulgence.
Research found that those who regularly consumed high-fat cheese and cream were less likely to develop dementia over a 25-year period than those who ate little or none.
High-fat cheeses, defined as those containing more than 20 per cent fat, include familiar staples such as cheddar, brie and gouda. High-fat cream, typically at least 30 to 40 per cent fat, included whipping, double and clotted.
The study, published in the journal Neurology, followed 27,670 people in Sweden with an average starting age of 58 and dietary habits were assessed at the outset. During the time they were tracked, 3,208 developed dementia.
Those who said they ate 50g or more of high-fat cheese a day, roughly two slices of cheddar, had a 13 per cent lower risk of developing dementia than those who ate less than 15g a day. Among the greater cheese eaters, 10 per cent developed dementia, compared with 13 per cent in the lower-intake group.
After adjusting for age, sex, education and overall diet quality, researchers also found a 29 per cent lower risk of vascular dementia among high-fat cheese consumers. A reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease was observed in people who did not carry the APOE e4 gene variant, a known genetic risk factor.
Cream showed a similar pattern. People who consumed 20g or more of high-fat cream daily — about one and a half tablespoons — had a 16 per cent lower risk of dementia than those who consumed none.
No association was found between dementia risk and low-fat cheese, low-fat cream, milk (high or low-fat), butter or fermented dairy products, such as yoghurt, kefir or buttermilk.
Dr Emily Sonestedt, of Lund University, the lead author of the study, said the findings challenged some entrenched assumptions. “For decades, the debate over high-fat versus low-fat diets has shaped health advice, sometimes even categorising cheese as an unhealthy food to limit,” she said. “Our study found that some high-fat dairy products may actually lower the risk of dementia, challenging some long-held assumptions about fat and brain health.”
Sonestedt added: “These findings suggest that when it comes to brain health not all dairy is equal. While eating more high-fat cheese and cream was linked to a reduced risk of dementia, other dairy products and low-fat alternatives did not show the same effect. More research is needed to confirm our study results and further explore whether consuming certain high-fat dairy truly offers some level of protection for the brain.”
Experts who were not involved in the research voiced a degree of scepticism because an observational study cannot prove cause and effect. It is possible that another “confounding” factor explained both the higher cheese consumption and the modestly better brain health.
Professor Tara Spires-Jones, the director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, said: “While these are interesting data, this type of study cannot determine whether this association of reduced dementia risk was caused by the differences in cheese consumption.”
One of the biggest limitations of the study was that cheese consumption was recorded from a food diary and interview 25 years before the analysis of dementia diagnoses, she added. Diet and lifestyle were likely to have changed substantially over the years. “There is not strong evidence for any individual food protecting people from dementia,” Spires-Jones said.
Professor Naveed Sattar, an expert in cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, offered a more blunt assessment. “I do not believe there is a causal link here, as this is an observational study rather than a randomised controlled trial,” he said.
Sattar pointed out that people who consumed more high-fat dairy were, on average, better educated, which is a factor associated with lower dementia risk.
Dr Richard Oakley, associate director of research and innovation at the Alzheimer’s Society, said focusing on cheese risked missing the bigger picture. “Evidence shows that quitting smoking, keeping physically active, eating a healthy balanced diet, managing long-term health conditions and drinking less alcohol play a far greater role in reducing dementia risk than focusing on a single food,” he said.
Source: TheTimes.com / Rhys Blakely
